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Vol. 63, No. 4 April 2020
Gary Wunder, Editor
Distributed by email, in inkprint, in Braille, and on USB flash drive, by the
The National Federation of the Blind
Mark Riccobono, President
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National Federation of the Blind
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THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND KNOWS THAT BLINDNESS IS NOT THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DEFINES YOU OR YOUR FUTURE. EVERY DAY WE RAISE THE EXPECTATIONS OF BLIND PEOPLE, BECAUSE LOW EXPECTATIONS CREATE OBSTACLES BETWEEN BLIND PEOPLE AND OUR DREAMS. YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT; BLINDNESS IS NOT WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK. THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES.
ISSN 0006-8829
The 2020 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Houston, Texas, July 14 to July 19, at the Hilton Americas—Houston hotel, 1600 Lamar Street, Houston, TX 77010. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Hilton Americas—Houston staff only. Call 1-800-236-2905 to reserve your room in the main hotel. If you wish to stay in our overflow hotel, the Marriott Marquis Houston, the number to call is 1-877-688-4323.
The 2020 room rate at our main hotel is $105.00 per night and applies to singles and doubles as well as triples and quads. Hotel and sales taxes are 13.38 percent and 8.25 percent, respectively. The rate for the overflow Marriott Marquis is slightly higher at $119 and includes Hotel and sales taxes of 13.38 percent and 8.25 percent, respectively. As with our main hotel, this rate is good for up to four in a room. Both hotels will take a deposit of the first night’s room rate for each room and will require a credit card or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged against your card immediately. If a reservation is cancelled before Friday, June 1, 2020, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise refunds will not be made.
Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations may be made before June 1, 2020, assuming that rooms are still available. After that time the hotels will not hold our room block for the convention. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.
The schedule for the 2020 convention is:
Tuesday, July 14 Seminar Day
Wednesday, July 15 Registration and Resolutions Day
Thursday, July 16 Board Meeting and Division Day
Friday, July 17 Opening Session
Saturday, July 18 Business Session
Sunday, July 19 Banquet Day and Adjournment
Each issue is recorded on a thumb drive (also called a memory stick or USB flash drive). You can read this audio edition using a computer or a National Library Service digital player. The NLS machine has two slots--the familiar book-cartridge slot just above the retractable carrying handle and a second slot located on the right side near the headphone jack. This smaller slot is used to play thumb drives. Remove the protective rubber pad covering this slot and insert the thumb drive. It will insert only in one position. If you encounter resistance, flip the drive over and try again. (Note: If the cartridge slot is not empty when you insert the thumb drive, the digital player will ignore the thumb drive.) Once the thumb drive is inserted, the player buttons will function as usual for reading digital materials. If you remove the thumb drive to use the player for cartridges, when you insert it again, reading should resume at the point you stopped.
You can transfer the recording of each issue from the thumb drive to your computer or preserve it on the thumb drive. However, because thumb drives can be used hundreds of times, we would appreciate their return in order to stretch our funding. Please use the return envelope enclosed with the drive when you return the device.
Vol. 63, No. 4 April 2020
The 2020 Washington Seminar
by Gary Wunder
Legislative Agenda of Blind Americans: Priorities for the 116th Congress, Second Session
Access Technology Affordability Act
Greater Access and Independence through Nonvisual Access Technology (GAIN) Act
Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education (AIM HIGH) Act
Remarks of Congressman Bobby Scott
Hearing on Autonomous Vehicles: Promises and Challenges of Evolving Automotive Technologies
by Mark Riccobono
Being Honest with Oneself Should Require No Debate
by Ryan Strunk
On Privilege
by Geerat J. Vermeij
The Tours in Texas
by Norma Crosby
I am a Federationist
by Jessica Reed
The Unknown
by Marc Maurer
Why Attend the 2020 NFB Career Fair?
by Dick Davis
The Blind Doctor of Rocanville
by Eva-Lis Wuorio
Leave a Legacy
Blindness: Is the Public Against Us?
by Kenneth Jernigan
Continuing the Recipe Column
by Gary Wunder
Recipes
Monitor Miniatures
Copyright 2020 by the National Federation of the Blind
The Braille Monitor is a magazine that the Federation has published since 1957. We call it our flagship publication. In terms not so tied to the Navy, this means that it should be the lead publication of our organization, the one which all of us follow and contribute to in order to share what is going on in our Federation family, the latest news about blindness-related activities, and the place we record the major milestones of the National Federation of the Blind’s progress.
For some time now we have been seeing Federationists—new Federationists in particular, we believe—who don’t seem to know about the Braille Monitor and who have not subscribed because of it. We have assembled a survey that will ask participants a number of things about the Monitor, including whether someone has offered to sign them up for it; whether they read it and why not if the answer is no; and what should change to make the Monitor more the kind of magazine they want to see as the flagship publication of our organization.
The Braille Monitor reflects many of our traditions, but it also must evolve enough to clearly be relevant in this decade and those to come. Please help us by telling us what you want, what you need, and what you will read. Together we will keep making history, and the Braille Monitor will continue to tell our story about defining a problem, talking it through, and doing what it takes to see that it gets solved. Thank you for helping the publication that states boldly “We are the Blind Speaking for Ourselves.”
How to Complete the Survey
Please complete the following survey questions.
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Your responses will be anonymous. Thank you for your participation in our Braille Monitor Survey.
by Gary Wunder
When I was a young lad, there were some things I knew to be solid and certain. My mother was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest woman in the world. My father was the smartest, hardest working, most motivated man in the world. He could walk into a room, and the room was his. People wanted to talk with him, to know what he thought, and if by chance they didn't ask, he let them know anyway.
But the one thing that surprised me was that when it came to government action and policy, Dad would sometimes refer to himself as the little guy or the little man. In no other area of his life did he think or talk about himself as little or helpless or inferior to anyone. When he would listen to the news and they talked about presidents, senators, or congressmen, he would occasionally comment about what they did, but he also made it clear that he had little to no influence over any of it except to complain, and, once in a while, cast his vote for or against them.
What a shock it was to me when I came to this blind group who said they routinely dealt with the House and the Senate at the state and national level. They said these men and women with titles came to their meetings and that the blind also went to visit them. They said that when the blind talked, these officials often listened, and the Federation had this impressive list of accomplishments that had come from their interaction.
To say the least I was impressed and then almost overwhelmed when they asked me to come along and speak with these powerful people. When I did it, they listened, and when some of them knew my name in repeat visits, I was on cloud nine. Almost as good was that my father was impressed and told family and friends about how I went to Washington to talk with people about what blind folks needed, and they actually acted.
For decades, the NFB has been coming to Washington, never deterred by the weather and not even when one house declared it was going on retreat after we had made plans to attend. One year we made it to Capitol Hill when many congressmen and staffers had a hard time getting in because of the snowy weather, and this helped immensely in convincing them of our commitment and how seriously we took our issues. They mentioned our presence for years after, and this was a big plus for a group considered so limited in dealing with their environment.
The Washington Seminar focuses on our trip to the hill, but over the years it has grown to be much more. This year witnessed a job fair sponsored by our committee to encourage employment, and more about it will appear elsewhere in this issue. The National Association of Blind Students has long held what it calls its mid-winter meeting, and recently the trip to Washington has been used for a meeting of state presidents. This, along with a meeting of state legislative directors, has people really pumped when it comes time for the Great Gathering-In meeting. This year it occurred on Monday, February 10. It began promptly at 5 p.m., and this is what President Riccobono said to open the meeting:
Why have we gathered here this evening? President Barack Obama said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” President John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
We, the blind of this nation, have come from near and far to take a stand for our future. We have come to stand for equality, opportunity, and security. We have come seeking not to be cared for by our government but to share in the responsibilities of building our nation. The blind have come because for too long we have suffered the injustice of low expectations. We stand together because we are not satisfied with the second-class education we have been offered compared to our sighted peers. We stand together because our independence is threatened by the failure of manufacturers and technology developers to include nonvisual access in their products. We stand together because we represent blind individuals from every state in the nation who seek to be the change needed. In standing together we raise expectations and eliminate the obstacles that hold us back.
We stand together in rejecting the institutionalized systems of discrimination that have existed in the past and often continue to define the present. We stand together with hope for the future. We stand together in solidarity, supporting the conviction that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future. We stand together even in the year when vision is being celebrated by every agency and organization that believes that the future is exclusively defined by eyesight. We stand together for the 2020 view on blindness, one that is defined by our authentic experience, and where we are the change we seek. We stand together knowing that united we can change the world.
To those who say we are unrealistic and should compromise our values, take note: we stand together, and we will not back down!
In 2018 the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education arbitrarily changed its case processing manual to strip away the protections that we had to make sure that we could file complaints if we faced discrimination in education. The National Federation of the Blind took a stand against the government deciding on its own and without notice to take away our rights, and we invited the NAACP and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates to stand with us. The government does not get to decide when we have rights and when we do not simply because it is not prepared to deal with the barriers that stand between blind people and our dreams.
As a result of our lawsuit, the Department of Education voluntarily returned to some of its previous policies; however, they did so with no guarantee that they would not make changes again in the future. Just a few days ago we announced a settlement agreement with the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. As a part of that settlement agreement, anyone who filed an OCR complaint that was dismissed between March 5, 2018, and November 19, 2018, may appeal the dismissal, thanks to the work of the National Federation of the Blind. The United States Department of Education now knows that we stand together, and we will not back down.
Michelle Clark is an information technology specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture. Ironically, part of her duties include Section 508 coverage for the agency. Michelle faced significant discrimination due to inaccessible workplace technologies. The National Federation of the Blind assisted her in resolving her employment discrimination complaint and in filing a Section 508 complaint against the Department of Agriculture. The evidence that we provided was overwhelming. The department was forced to investigate its adherence to Section 508 and ultimately found against itself. Specifically it found that, in procuring and implementing inaccessible technology, it had violated federal law.
We have also stood with Amy Ruell and Joe Orozco in filing lawsuits against their employers, Beacon Health Options and the FBI respectively, because those institutions have implemented inaccessible workplace technologies that prevent blind people from being fully independent in their jobs. Similarly, we have supported NFB member Maryann Murad in filing a suit against Amazon for implementing inaccessible workplace technology that prevented her from being hired as a virtual customer assistant using Amazon’s platform. We offered to help Amazon fix its platform, but instead they said that maybe Miss Murad should “apply for a more appropriate position.”
We support these blind individuals and others to let all employers know that the future we seek is one in which the technologies do not bar us from full participation. We stand together, and we will not back down.
Similarly, in such an important election year, we face discrimination in voting. Let any elected official who supports unequal access to the American democracy that bars blind people from having a secret, independently verifiable ballot know that we will find a way to organize, and our votes will count against you. On the issue of equal access to voting, we stand together, and we will not back down.
We have come with solutions. We stand with a clear commitment to demonstrate to others the future we believe is possible. Long ago we recognized that the education system was failing our blind children. The limiting effects of low expectations have held generation after generation of blind youth back. We built training centers in Colorado, Louisiana, and Minnesota to cultivate the capacity that America’s education system fails to recognize. But this has not been enough. So, we committed that if they will not teach them, we will teach them ourselves. We started programs in science, technology, engineering, art, and math nearly two decades ago. Now hundreds of blind youth have successfully pursued advanced degrees and careers in the most innovative and cutting edge areas of our American society. Many of those blind people have now come back to teach the next generation in the Federation education program. This commitment was made by blind people standing together for blind people. It was made with love, hope, and determination for the future that we seek to build. For the next generation we stand together, and we will not back down.
We will not back down because our future is on the line. We have come because we want the future to be built on our terms, not on outdated notions of blindness that have held us back. We have come because we have real solutions to offer, and we are prepared to stand together as long as it takes to get those solutions enacted into law and implemented across the nation. We have come because the National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us or our future. Every day we raise the expectations for the blind because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want, and blindness is not what holds you back.
We stand together with love, hope, and determination. We will not back down because we come to our Washington Seminar to transform dreams into reality. This is the significance of the Washington Seminar. Let’s go build the National Federation of the Blind!
President Riccobono’s theme would be echoed again and again during the Great Gathering-In, and the speaker who followed him used it several times. Bobby Scott is the chairperson of the committee on education and labor, and the remarks he made will appear elsewhere in this issue.
After Congressman Scott’s moving remarks, President Riccobono noted that in the audience were Immediate Past President Dr. Maurer, his wife Patricia, and Mrs. Mary Ellen Jernigan. Their presence was greeted with a warm round of applause.
For a very long time Diane McGeorge was the coordinator of the Washington Seminar, but she announced last year that she was passing the responsibility to Buna Dahal. After welcoming us to the 2020 Washington Seminar, Buna asked us to give a shout-out to Diane, who was no doubt listening on the seminar stream. This we did, and it almost brought the house down. Buna thanked all of the people involved in the logistics that make the Washington Seminar possible. She also said that she had had a talk with the hotel staff and that they would be ready for the onslaught of people who would visit after the Great Gathering-In meeting concluded.
Our director of communications, Stephanie Cascone, made her first appearance at the Washington Seminar in her new capacity, and she took a minute to talk about the importance of chronicling our activities on Twitter and Facebook. She urged us to share with the world those congressman and staffers we had met with but to refrain from announcing endorsements until they are officially confirmed by our advocacy and policy group when they review the list of those who have cosponsored.
Anil Lewis is our executive director of blindness initiatives at the Jernigan Institute. He gave a brief overview of many programs that we sponsor including the Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy, our Spatial Abilities in Blindness Engineering Research (SABER) program that is funded by the National Science Foundation to help us in our work to teach mechanical engineering skills to blind students, Youth Slam in which we bring over two hundred blind students each year for a series of weeklong activities, and the expansion of that program that we will bring to fifteen of our affiliates. We continue to teach people how to create nonvisual access in the programs and websites they design, and as an extension to this, we are going to teach both novices and experts how to design mobile applications that are similarly accessible. Much more detail can be found on the NFB website about the programs, and we are hopeful that an article with more in-depth coverage will be coming for the Braille Monitor.
The National Federation of the Blind wants to recognize innovative programs and the people who create them. For this reason we created the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, and President Riccobono reminded everyone that we should get in applications before April 15. This is a marvelous opportunity to give significant recognition to those who have made real advancements in work on behalf of the blind.
Rideshare services represent a wonderful opportunity for blind people, but we continue to see discriminatory behavior when it comes to transporting people and their guide dogs. We have a monitoring program in place. This is the last year of the program, but since discrimination still persists, it is urgent that we use the service to report both the good and the bad. Let us take this opportunity to make our voices heard so that we as Federationists can decide what we should do next.
Jeannie Massay is the chairperson of the National Federation of the Blind Membership Committee. She took the microphone to discuss our initiatives to get new members and reminded all of us that if we know blind people who were not members, we should make a special effort to let them know about the programs and activities of the Federation. She also said that we have initiated a quarterly call in which people who are not members can talk with the leadership of the Federation and ask questions that they may have about the organization. More information can be had by writing to [email protected].
John Paré is the Federation’s executive director of advocacy and policy, and it was his turn to address the group. He said that we would be highlighting three issues as we went to Capitol Hill but that we are involved in at least six active issues. They include the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act; legislation on autonomous vehicles; and Sami’s Law, a bill to enhance security when using rideshare services. The three major issues we took to Capitol Hill were outlined by members of the advocacy and policy team. Since the fact sheets will immediately follow this article, we will not attempt to summarize them here.
Dr. Sachin Pavithran is the chairperson of the United States Access Board, and he addressed the gathering. Dr. Pavithran said that many universities tell us that they do not know how to comply with accessibility requirements, but it is clear to him that the technology and techniques definitely exist for them to comply. It is up to us to see that they do, and from his fourteen years attending the Washington Seminar, he believes we will. The executive director of the Access Board has announced his retirement, and President Riccobono suggested that Sachin Pavithran would make a wonderful replacement. The Access Board has never been headed by a blind person, and he opined that, should Dr. Pavithran decide to apply for the position, he thought that the Federation might support him. The room evidenced its agreement with its cheers and applause.
The Dream Makers Circle is a program through which members and non-members alike can make a contribution to the Federation on their death. This support can make a tremendous difference in the lives of blind people in the future, and President Riccobono encouraged those who are interested to contact Patti Chang by writing to [email protected] or by calling her at 410-659-9314, extension 2422.
Scott LaBarre came forward to talk about the Preauthorized Contribution Program. He observed that the changes we want to make in the lives of blind people cannot be done on fumes. Progress will require real fuel in the form of commitment and money. The Preauthorized Contribution Program is an excellent way to see that the organization has the funds it needs to be effective in pushing forward our agenda by allowing members to make reliable and affordable monthly contributions to our organization. Scott asked that we sing the PAC song twice since it is likely that we will be changing the name of the program to avoid the frequent confusion with organizations that make political contributions through what they call PACS.
Terri Rupp of Nevada is the newest member of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. She announced that she would be doing a 50-K run to raise $50,000 for the National Federation of the Blind. She urged members to support her run using social media and suggested that there is something beautiful in being able to unite three things she loves: shoes, running, and the Federation. The crowd enthusiastically wished her well in this endeavor and expressed gratitude for her enthusiasm and commitment.
The next to last announcement of the evening was that the National Association of Blind Students would be holding its Capitol Karaoke event immediately following the Great Gathering-In, and all were encouraged to attend either as performers or spectators.
Whether the last event at the Great Gathering-In qualifies as an announcement or not I will leave to the reader. President Riccobono said that the 2021 National Convention will be held from July 6 to July 11. He started to announce the location, but since it was getting close to 7 p.m. he said that announcement would have to wait.
After the Great Gathering-In meeting, some went to caucus and role-play, some went to find dinner, and some went to karaoke.
On Tuesday morning the DC affiliate offered us delicious doughnuts to ensure we would have the energy to take on the rigors of Capitol Hill. Uber, Lyft, and the DC taxis were delighted by the morning rush. The halls of the House and Senate were crowded, but not so crowded that one could not hear the click of dog nails and the tapping of white canes. We had to balance our desire to say hello, brag about our latest meeting, and hear the same from our compatriots against the need to make our next appointments.
After a busy day on Capitol Hill, many of us moved to the Kennedy Caucus Room, one of the most prestigious in the United States Senate, where we participated in the National Federation of the Blind Congressional Reception. The purpose in holding the reception was to bring the 2020 view on blindness to Capitol Hill. The Alliance of Automotive Innovators has been very helpful in sponsoring this event, and Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland helped us secure this beautiful room for the evening.
We have had a number of exceptional congressional receptions, but by far this one was the most exceptional. Fourteen senators and representatives attended, and a number of them made remarks, some of which we will print here.
The first person introduced to speak was Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. He is the chief sponsor of the Accessible Technology Affordability Act in the Senate. The senator very generously and courteously acknowledged members of the House of Representatives and other senators from both parties. He went on to say,
There's a lot going on in our country that challenges the values of this great nation. I’m not going to go into all of that, but one thing is clear: this country needs to make sure that every person is treated fairly and equitably here in America and has every opportunity. I want to thank my friend Fred Graefe for always reminding me about the importance of these issues as they relate to those who are visually impaired. We need to make sure we do what’s right, and today technology is out of the financial reach of too many people who are visually impaired. That needs to change in this country, and that’s why I’ve introduced bipartisan legislation. I want to thank Senator Bozeman, my cosponsor of this bill in the United States Senate. This will provide the kind of financial help so you can have the technology you need to be able to do all in your ability to help your families and help this country. Yes, this is about individual empowerment and fairness to the individual. But it’s also about the economic strength of America by using the talents of every person in our country so that our country can perform at the level that we need to for international competition. We need your talent; we need you to help build our country; we need you to help build wealth here in America. I couldn’t be prouder of what you do as individuals and as an organization. You really are carrying out the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he said, 'Each one of us is here for a purpose. Each one of us can make a difference in someone’s life, but when we join together, we can bring about change.' You are joined together, you are bringing about change, we are on that journey, and we are going to succeed.
Congressman Bob Latta from Ohio was the next member to address us. He is particularly influential in the area of autonomous vehicles and the role that the federal government will play in their regulation and adoption. He thanked President Riccobono for the testimony delivered earlier in the day to the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Congressman’s mother was significantly visually impaired, and she stopped driving when he was sixteen and relied on others to help her with transportation. He is excited about this bill because 37,000 people die on our nation's roads each year, and the overwhelming majority of fatalities are caused by human error. We concentrate on safety in many areas of our lives, and automobile and pedestrian safety should rank high on the list. He noted that it is wonderful when Congress can pass something that not only creates a safer world but also extends such tremendous opportunities to those who need equality in transportation.
Congressman Cathy McMorris Rodgers hails from the state of Washington. She is our lead cosponsor on the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act and is also heavily involved in the issue of autonomous vehicles. She also has a deep commitment to raising expectations and eliminating discrimination for workers with disabilities. Representative McMorris Rodgers began by commending President Riccobono on the testimony he gave earlier in the day. She said that when members of that committee and the rest of Congress saw us walking those halls, there could be no better testimony to our capabilities and the things we need in order to enjoy full equality of opportunity. She said,
I have a son with special needs. He’s in sixth grade, and I often wonder about his future. Where is Cole going to live, where is he going to work, and what kind of future is he going to have? You know, I am super excited about his future right now as I think about the policies you are advancing, not just for the blind but for so many others around driverless cars, around competitive employment, and so many other things. So you being here makes a difference, and I just want to say thanks more than anything for doing that. I am proud to be the Republican lead on the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act. There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come, and this idea has come. You look at the unemployment rate in America and we’re celebrating that the unemployment rate for those with disabilities has come down; however, we need to make sure that as we are moving forward that we are recognizing the ability of each person and seeing them the way they deserve when it comes to their employment. Thanks for being here, thanks for all you do; we're in this together, and we're going to get it done. God bless you.
President Riccobono introduced our next presenter with these words. “He is our lead champion in the House of Representatives for the Accessible Technology Affordability Act. He serves as the chairperson for the Subcommittee on Tax and Policy for the Ways and Means Committee. From the great state of California, here is Congressman Mike Thompson:
Thank you to all of you for coming to Capitol Hill to work on this issue. The bills you have heard about today are so incredibly important, and your being here is going to be the impetus for making sure that they become law. I’ve got to say a special thanks to Ben Cardin who’s carrying this bill in the Senate. I’m so proud that he’s doing that, and I’m so happy he could get this room for all of us tonight. But you know, what I’m most happy about with Ben is that he left the House to run for the Senate because I was able to move up on the dais in the Ways and Means Committee. As a result I am the chairman of the Special Revenues Subcommittee, and I’m able to really work hard for your accessibility legislation. We are going to get this bill passed by the House, passed by the Senate, and signed into law.
Congressman Sanford Bishop addressed the reception and began by thanking all of us for being at our nation’s capitol. He related a story in which a high school friend was always chosen last for the basketball team, and although people liked him, they couldn’t figure out why he could never keep hold of the basketball. When the congressman left to go to college, his mother hired this young man to weed her garden. When she saw that he had not cleaned all the weeds, she asked him why not, and he said that he thought he had. She convinced his mother to take him to an ophthalmologist; he was diagnosed as legally blind, he got services, went to college, and finished Summa Cum Laude. He became a minister and pastored a church for some thirty-five years. The take-away the congressman wished to share with everyone is that ability is not measured by visual impairment if you have the resources, and it has no bearing on your ability to become a fully functioning American. He said,
When we invest in people, people succeed, so I am proud to be a cosponsor of the technology bill. I’m proud to support AbilityOne, and I’m proud to support all of the programs that enhance your position to be able to realize a high quality of life. … I say to my constituents over and over again that it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and the crying baby that gets the milk. Here at the seat of power, I want you to squeak, I want you to cry, and I want you to let all of the members of the Senate know just how important it is to invest in each and every one of you through the Accessible Technology Affordability Act and all of the resources that will make your life better.
He concluded his remarks with these words:
Isn't it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make—
Ere life is flown—
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.I want to thank you, each and every one of you, for not being a stumbling block but for being a steppingstone for a higher, better quality of life for all Americans, particularly those who are blind and have vision impairments.
President Riccobono next introduced Congressman Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. He began by acknowledging all of the distinguished persons who came to the microphone before him and those in the room who would soon come to speak. He observed that if a member of the House or Senate was not on the Accessible Technology Affordability Act, there was something wrong with him. The congressman noted that in 2016 he suffered significant vision loss in one eye as a result of shingles on his head. He said that each and every one of us, no matter who we are, all face problems and that we are all in the same boat. This is why we must help one another.
Congresswoman Alma Adams thanked us for coming to the Capitol and observed that this was where we needed to be because it is here we can meet with the people who hold the purse strings and shape the policies that will influence our lives. “I have always said that sometimes you can’t change policies unless you change policymakers, so if you have to do that, you can go ahead and do it.” The congresswoman has some special insight into the needs of blind people, her sister being blind and having sickle cell anemia. She assisted her sister through school, and this experience helped her recognize some of the difficulties that blind people can face in the world. She supports bills to see that blind people get into the workforce, that once there we are treated as we should be, and that we have the skills and technology to be effective in all walks of life. “You are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, and as you continue to advocate, you need to make sure that what you need is known to each of us. … You know it doesn’t matter who we are; what matters is what we can become.” Thinking further about the future, she said, “A community can only grow great when old men and old women plant trees under which we know we will never sit. We are serving here in the Congress to plant those trees for those who will come behind us and for those who are here right now. Thank you for what you do, and thank you for your leadership as well.”
Congressman John Sarbanes represents the district in which President Riccobono lives and where the National Federation of the Blind has its headquarters. He is a good friend of the Federation, and he next came to the microphone. He said he is proud to represent the National Federation of the Blind and proud of the advocacy work we do because he believes that all of it is oriented to lifting people up, and when you lift them up, they in turn lift everyone else.
The majority leader of the United States House of Representatives, Congressman Steny Hoyer, was next introduced. The close working relationship we have with him was evidenced by the applause he received as he moved to the microphone. He reminded us that the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and that he was the sponsor of the bill. His only regret is that he believes the bill was misnamed and should have been called the Americans with Abilities Act since the reason for its being is to help all of us focus on the things that we can do. He tells people that the Americans with Disabilities Act was not passed just for people with disabilities but so that this great country could tap all of our talents in making her the best that she can be. In closing he said, "So I want to thank you for your advocacy, notwithstanding that which you can’t do but magnifying what you can do. That’s what we all need to do.”
Before leaving the stage, Congressman Hoyer introduced a friend and a person he has known for a long time. “You now have somebody who has dedicated all her life to educating, lifting up, reaching out, and making lives better in so many roles. She is an extraordinary educator, a former president of the University of Wisconsin, a former president of the University of Miami, a former secretary of the health and human services agency, and now a member of the Congress of the United States. She has spent every day of her adult life advocating for better policies for all of our people. I am so pleased to be her colleague and her friend; ladies and gentlemen, Donna Shalala.”
Congresswoman Shalala said that she spent a long time as secretary of Health and Human Services and that she came back to Washington, DC, in her seventies because she found herself “pissed off.” In her opinion, we have so much more to do. The Americans with Disabilities Act was step one, and Congresswoman Shalala believes that it is our job to figure out what piece of legislation will deal with the problems we face now and in the future will be step two.
President Riccobono next introduced Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. The senator apologized for beginning with bad news but noted that the poverty rate for people with disabilities far exceeds the rate for those who are not disabled. Similarly, the rate of employment of disabled people falls far below the employment rate for people without them. We all know this is unacceptable, and Senator Casey discussed four bills intended to address poverty and unemployment for the disabled. He began by talking about the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act to phase out the payment of subminimum wages and to create good jobs in their place. He supports the Disability Employment Incentive Act to double the existing tax credit for hiring a person with a disability. He similarly favors the Home and Community-Based Services Infrastructure Improvement Act that will provide additional Medicaid funds to states so they can increase the availability of accessible housing, transportation, and funds for creating competitive, integrated employment services. If passed it will also provide funds for increased wages for direct service workers. Lastly, the senator believes we need to grow the ABLE Act [Achieving a Better Life Experience]. “It’s good legislation; we’re glad we got it passed five years ago, but ABLE, as it stands now, isn’t good enough. We’ve got about 56,000 accounts across the country, and we want that number to grow. One of the best ways to grow it is to raise the age from twenty-six to forty-six. That will make millions more people eligible including one million veterans. We want to make sure we do that...I’m giving all the credit to all of you for walking the halls, for making the case to move this agenda forward. God bless you and thank you. Have fun tonight.”
President Riccobono took the opportunity to recognize Dave Schwietert from the Alliance of Auto Innovators. He thanked the alliance for their tremendous support, both of the National Federation of the Blind and the concept that accessibility of autonomous vehicles should be baked in rather than added as an afterthought.
President Riccobono introduced our next guest by saying that the way we got acquainted was by our president being called to the congressman’s office with the complaint that we were holding up action on an important bill. When President Riccobono met with the congressman, the president was pleasantly surprised when Representative Chris Smith said that he understood why we were holding up his bill and that the safety provisions it was intended to provide for users of rideshare services should not be visual. He wanted to know how to change them and expected us to help. We are working with the congressman to ensure that Sami’s Law makes the world a safer place for rideshare users and provides all of the benefits to blind people that will be enjoyed by those who can see.
The congressman began his remarks with a cute story. He was asked to give a keynote address, told to keep it to an hour, and delivered it in an hour and five minutes. At the end of his presentation, a little girl came up and told him that his speech was long and boring. A few minutes later the father of the girl came and said, "I don’t know what you two were talking about, but I just want you to know my little daughter Melissa is four years old, and she just repeats whatever she hears.” He says he now keeps all of his remarks to two minutes.
Representative Smith said that he has been in Congress for forty years and that much of his time and energy have been put into civil rights and disability issues. He introduced Sami’s Law when the mother and father of one of his constituents came to report her brutal murder after getting into a vehicle that was not part of a rideshare service. The goal of Sami’s Law is to ensure that those requesting a rideshare vehicle can verify before closing the door that they are indeed entering the vehicle they ordered. Representative Smith is grateful for our input and believes that the resulting legislation will be far better as a result of our collaboration.
Congressman Steve Stivers was the last lawmaker to address the reception. He said that his goals and our goals are aligned, that he was cosponsoring some of our legislation, and that our shared commitment was to see that blind people could live the lives we want with technology that is accessible to us. He offered as one example his commitment to see that his website was completely accessible and thanked the Federation for its assistance with the project.
In wrapping up the reception, President Riccobono said, "We have friends like these because all of you make the effort to come from your local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind to Washington, DC, to represent our movement. We’ve got some more work to do on the Hill, so enjoy some food, enjoy some drink, and let’s go build the National Federation of the Blind.” With a thank-you to all of the congressmen who came and to the Alliance of Auto Innovators, the reception was adjourned.
There is much that could be said about the events of Wednesday and Thursday, but I think the results of our seminar are best summarized by John Paré when he says:
Thank you for your fantastic work at Washington Seminar. As President Riccobono reported in his weekly notebook, we had a significant increase in all of our cosponsor counts. In the House, the Access Technology Affordability Act went from forty-nine to sixty-three cosponsors. In the Senate it went from fifteen to seventeen cosponsors. The GAIN Act went from four to thirteen cosponsors. Finally, AIM HIGH went from four to twelve cosponsors in the House. This Washington Seminar was one of the most productive in recent history, and you deserve all the credit.
The Federation is built for and run by men and women who have too often been counted out rather than counted on. When work has been needed, we have been told to stand aside. Sometimes we are admired for wanting to help but told we must be realistic about the things we can do and more importantly the things we can't. But more and more because of events like our Washington Seminar we are being welcomed into the workforce and seen as contributors. We are far from our goal of total integration, but we know progress is achieved one step at a time, and the journey is painfully slow for those of us who are traveling it. But, we will not back down, we will not give up, and we will not forsake our brothers and sisters who want and demand a piece of the pie and to share in the American dream. We will make the future we want because our principles are sound, our commitment is unshakable, and our cause is as American as any challenge can be.
As you read about the issues we have taken to Congress, convert your enthusiasm into action. Write, call, visit your members of Congress when they are home, and build the relationships that make real for them the need for the changes we propose. Step up; don't think of yourself as the little man or woman. Exercise your right to be heard and taken seriously, and bring others with you by building this marvelous organization we share.
The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives we want.
The cost of critically needed access technology is out of reach for most blind Americans. By providing a refundable tax credit for qualifying purchases, Congress will stimulate individual procurement of this technology and promote affordability of these tools.
Advanced digital interfaces create barriers that prevent blind individuals from independently operating essential devices that enhance quality of life. Congress must end the digital divide that threatens the independence of blind Americans by developing minimum accessibility requirements for such devices.
Until a market-driven solution for accessible instructional materials is achieved, blind college students are denied access to critical course content. The AIM HIGH Act will remove these barriers to equality in the classroom by creating a set of guidelines that clearly define accessible instructional materials.
THESE PRIORITIES WILL REMOVE OBSTACLES TO EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, AND INDEPENDENT LIVING. WE URGE CONGRESS TO SUPPORT OUR LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES.
The high cost of access technology creates a difficult economic reality. Most access technology ranges from $1,000 to $6,000. For example, a leading screen reader is $900, a popular Braille notetaker is $5,495, one model of a refreshable Braille display is $2,795, and a moderately priced Braille embosser is $3,695. According to the United States Census Bureau 69.5 percent of blind Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.1 Consequently, most blind Americans do not have sufficient financial resources needed to purchase these items.2 These financial barriers can ultimately lead to a loss of employment, insufficient education, or even isolation from community activities.
Medical insurance will not cover the cost of access technology. Current definitions of "medical care," "medical necessity," and "durable medical equipment" within common insurance policies do not include access technology. These definitions were adopted in the 1960s “when medical care was viewed primarily as curative and palliative, with little or no consideration given to increasing an individual's functional status.”3 Many states’ Medicaid programs and individual health insurance plans have adopted similar definitions and likewise will not cover the cost of access technology.4
Access technology enables blind Americans to participate in today’s workforce. Blindness is well-defined and measurable,5 but affects each person differently and at different ages. Since individuals’ needs differ, manufacturers have designed various tools that enable each blind American to perform tasks that they were once unable to accomplish themselves due to their blindness. Braille notetakers are frequently used in schools, screen reading software allows workers to check their email at home, and screen magnification software can help seniors losing vision learn about community activities. Access technology equips blind Americans to seek employment and stay employed. For the 69.5 percent of blind Americans who are either unemployed or underemployed, it is a vehicle that facilitates the job-seeking process. Despite this critical need however, public and private entities struggle to meet consumer demand6 This leads to untimely delays in the delivery of necessary technology and ultimately harms the blind consumer.
Solution-Access Technology Affordability Act:
Makes access technology more affordable so that blind Americans can procure these items for themselves. It establishes a refundable tax credit for blind Americans in the amount of $2,000 to be used over a three-year period to offset the cost of access technology. The credit created by ATAA will sunset after five years and will be indexed for inflation.
Provides flexibility for individuals to obtain access technology based upon their specific needs. Accessibility requires an individualized assessment of one’s own skills and needs. Therefore, blind Americans should be given the opportunity to procure access technology on their own to ensure that they are receiving the tools that are most useful for them.
Will increase federal income tax revenue. More blind Americans working means more people paying taxes. It also means that those blind Americans who obtain gainful employment through this tax credit will no longer need to draw from federal programs such as Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance and will instead be paying into the Social Security Program.
GOAL--IMPROVE AFFORDABILITY OF CRITICALLY NEEDED ACCESS TECHNOLOGY NECESSARY FOR EMPLOYMENT AND INDEPENDENT LIVING.
For more information, contact:
Jeff Kaloc, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind
Phone: 410-659-9314, extension 2206, Email: [email protected], Visit: www.nfb.org.
1. See 2017 American Community Survey, www.disabilitystatistics.org.
2. Erickson, W., Lee, C., von Schrader, S. (2016). "Disability Statistics from the 2014 American Community Survey (ACS)." Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Employment and Disability Institute (EDI). Retrieved November 11, 2016, from www.disabilitystatistics.org.
3. National Council on Disability, “Federal Policy Barriers to Assistive Technology,” (May 31, 2000) 8, http://www.ncd.gov/rawmedia_repository/c9e48e89_261b_4dda_bc74_203d5915519f.pdf.
4. Assistive Technology Industry Associates, “AT Resources Funding Guide,” https://www.atia.org/at-resources/what-is-at/resources- funding-guide/ (last accessed December 10, 2018).
5. See 26 U.S.C. § 63(f)(4).
6. See e.g. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research, “Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request,” https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget20/justifications/i-rehab.pdf, p. I-50.
Home use medical devices, home appliances, and fitness equipment are becoming less and less accessible for blind Americans. The rapid proliferation of advanced technology is undeniable. Most new stoves, glucose monitors, and treadmills now require that consumers interact with a digital display, flat panels, and other user interfaces. This new technology is inaccessible to blind individuals and creates a modern-day barrier. Inaccessibility is not a mere inconvenience; it threatens the safety, health, and independence of blind Americans. Advancements in technology have the potential to transform how people live in a society but are designed for those with no functional limitations.1 This flaw in product design limits options for blind Americans who need nonvisual access to important devices that are available to people without disabilities.2
Nonvisual access is achievable, as demonstrated by a number of mainstream products. Apple has incorporated VoiceOver (a text-to-speech function) into its touch-screen products, making the iPhone, iPod, and iPad fully accessible to blind people right out of the box. Virtually all ATMs manufactured in the United States are accessible, and every polling place provides a nonvisually accessible voting machine. Frequently, a simple audio output or vibrotactile feature can make a product fully accessible at minimal cost.
Current disability laws are not able to keep up with advancements in technology. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws require physical accessibility for people with disabilities (e.g., wheelchair ramps, Braille in public buildings), no laws protect blind consumers’ right to access technology such as home use medical devices, home appliances, or fitness equipment. The National Council on Disability concluded that accessibility standards lag behind the rapid pace of technology, which can interfere with technology access.3 This trend of inaccessibility won’t improve if accessibility solutions are ignored. Only a fraction of manufacturers incorporate nonvisual access standards into their product design while others resist solutions.
Solution-Greater Access and Independence through Nonvisual Access Technology (GAIN) Act:
Calls on the Access Board to conduct a nonvisual access standard review. The Access Board (an independent federal agency and leading source of information on accessible design) will review the current marketplace, consult with stakeholders and manufacturers, and will issue a report with findings and recommendations for a minimum nonvisual access standard for home use medical devices, home appliances, and fitness equipment.
Establishes a minimum nonvisual access standard for home use medical devices, home appliances, and fitness equipment. The Access Board will issue a final rule, not later than thirty-six months after the date of enactment of the act, to establish a minimum nonvisual access standard for home use medical devices, home appliances, and fitness equipment. The standard will go into effect two years after the final rule.
Authorizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce the nonvisual access standards for home use medical devices. Under its authority to ensure the safety, efficacy, and security of medical devices, the FDA will investigate and, when appropriate, assess civil penalties against manufacturers who fail to comply with the standard.
Authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce the nonvisual accessibility standards for home appliances and fitness equipment. Under its authority to investigate and enforce consumer protection matters, the FTC will investigate and, when appropriate, assess civil penalties against manufacturers who fail to comply with the standard.
GOAL-END THE DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR BLIND AMERICANS.
For more information, contact:
Stephanie Flynt, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind, Phone: 410-659-9314, extension 2210, Email: [email protected],
Visit: www.nfb.org.
1. See NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITIES, National Disability Policy Progress Report: Technology that enables access to the full opportunities of citizenship under the Constitution is a right at 19 (October 7, 2016), available at https://ncd.gov/progressreport/2016/progress-report-october-2016.
2. See Id.
3. See Id.
Technology has fundamentally changed the education system. The scope of instructional materials used at institutions of higher education has expanded. Curricular content comes in digital books, PDFs, webpages, etc., and most of this content is delivered through digital databases, learning management systems, and applications. The print world is inherently inaccessible to students with disabilities, but technology offers the opportunity to expand the circle of participation. There are currently seven million students with disabilities in grades K-12, and that number keeps growing.1 It is reasonable to presume that the number who go on to pursue postsecondary education is similarly trending upward.
Blind students are facing unlawful and overwhelming barriers to education. Instead of fulfilling the promise of equal access, technology creates more problems when not developed with accessibility in mind. Data show that students with disabilities face a variety of challenges, including matriculation and college completion failure,2 solely because, in the absence of clear accessibility guidelines, colleges and universities are sticking with the ad-hoc accommodations model.3 Currently, schools deploy inaccessible technology and then create another version for blind students, usually weeks or even months into class, creating a “separate-but-equal” landscape with nearly impenetrable barriers. With only 30.5 percent of blind people being employed full-time year round,4 compared to 69.5 percent among people without disabilities,5 students with disabilities should not be denied access by the innovations that can ensure full participation.
Higher education institutions struggle to identify accessible material and comply with nondiscrimination laws. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act require schools to provide equal access, and in 2010, the US Departments of Justice and Education clarified that the use of inaccessible technology is prohibited under these laws.6 The 2011 AIM Commission recommended to Congress that accessibility guidelines be developed for postsecondary instructional materials.7 In the nine years since,8 over three dozen institutions have faced legal action for using inaccessible technology,9 and complaints are on the rise. Most litigation ends with a commitment from the school to embrace accessibility, but that commitment does little in a vast and uncoordinated higher education market.10
Solution--Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act:
Develops accessibility guidelines for instructional materials used in postsecondary education. A purpose-based commission is tasked with developing accessibility criteria for instructional materials and the delivery systems/technologies used to access those materials. Additionally, the commission is tasked with developing an annotated list of existing national and international standards so that schools and developers can identify what makes a product usable by the blind.
Provides a digital accessibility roadmap for institutions of higher education. The guidelines developed by the commission will contain specific technical and functional criteria that will clearly illustrate how to make educational technologies usable by the blind and other students with print disabilities. Such criteria will be beneficial to procurement officers, informational technology staff, chief technology officers, and other key personnel at institutions of higher education.
Offers flexibility for schools while reiterating that pre-existing obligations still apply. Colleges and universities are permitted to use material that does not conform to the guidelines as long as equal access laws are still honored. Conformity with the AIM HIGH guidelines is only one path to compliance; schools can pursue a different path but in doing so will forfeit the combined expertise of the relevant stakeholder communities involved in the development of the AIM HIGH guidelines.
GOAL--REMOVE BARRIERS TO EQUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM.
For more information, contact:
Stephanie Flynt, government affairs specialist, National Federation of the Blind
Phone: 410-659-9314, extension 2210, Email: [email protected], Visit: www.nfb.org.
1. US Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, “Children and Youth with Disabilities,” last updated May 2019,
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp
2. Brand, B., Valent, A., Danielson, L., College & Career Readiness & Success Center American Institutes for Research, “Improving College and Career Readiness for Students with Disabilities,” 2013.
3. “Report of the Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities.” (2011)
4. United States Census Bureau American Community Survey, “The percentage of non-institutionalized persons aged 21-64 years with a visual disability in the United States who were employed full-time/full-year in 2017,” http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/acs.cfm?statistic=4
5. United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, “69.5 percent of people who worked in 2017 worked full time, year round,” December 20, 2018, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/69-point-5-percent-of-people-who-worked-in-2017-worked-full-time-year-round.htm
6. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Letter to College and University Presidents, June 29, 2010.
7. “Report of the Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities.” (2011) 42, No. 1. Higher ED Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements
8. LaGrow, Martin. “From Accommodation to Accessibility: Creating a Culture of Inclusivity.” March 13, 2017. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/3/from-accommodation-to-accessibility-creating-a-culture-of-inclusivity?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+ marketing&utm_campaign=ER.
9. Information Technology Systems and Services, University of Minnesota Duluth, “Higher Ed Accessibility Lawsuits, Complaints, and Settlements,” https://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html.
From the Editor: Representative Bobby Scott has been the congressman for the Third District of Virginia since 1993. He has the distinction of being the first African-American elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Virginia since Reconstruction. He currently serves as the chairperson of the Committee on Education and Labor in the United States House of Representatives. From this position he demonstrates his courage and commitment as the chief champion with his commitment to the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, that, when passed, will eliminate unequal pay to workers with disabilities. Here are the remarks he made:
Thank you Mark for your very kind introduction, and thank you for inviting me to join this year’s Great Gathering-In. You know, you gave us all those quotations. Let me give you another one. Martin Luther King frequently said that “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Now others have added in, “The moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, but it doesn’t bend by itself.” The National Federation of the Blind is bending that arc toward justice, and I want to thank you for all of that work. I want to recognize the NFB board and the staff as well as Federation members from around the country. I want to especially thank those who are here from Virginia. How many of you are here? I want to give a shout-out to Tracy, Eureka, Stuart, and everybody from Virginia who are here today. Advancing equal opportunity and independence for the blind and people with disabilities requires us to work together. Thanks to your hard work and some strong partnerships, I’m happy to report that the House Committee on Education and Labor is making progress. Last October we introduced the College Affordability Act or the CAA, a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s higher education system. The proposal not only lowers the cost of college, improves the quality of college, but also expands the opportunities for those students to graduate, including those with disabilities. Specifically the bill provides faculty with the resources to deliver accessible and inclusive instruction and leverage instructional materials and technology. Simply put, the College Affordability Act better aligns our higher education system with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act so that all students can reach their full potential.
We’ve also worked with Congress to guarantee workers with disabilities the right to earn a fair wage. This past July the House passed the Raise the Wage Act, which will gradually increase the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour by 2025. We’ve gone more than ten years without a minimum wage increase, the longest period in history. This bill will increase the pay for over 33 million workers, and lift 1.3 million out of poverty, including 600,000 children. But the Raise the Wage Act does not just ensure that some workers have access to a decent wage. It ensures that all workers receive the full minimum wage by eliminating the Section 14(c) subminimum wage. That 14(c) subminimum wage is outdated and discriminatory. It has not been reformed since 1938 when the Fair Labor Standards Act was created over eighty years ago. The provision continues to allow employers to pay workers with disabilities subminimum wages based not on performance and skill but on their disability status alone. Today more than half the workers with disabilities who are paid a subminimum wage make less than two dollars an hour. In the worst cases, workers with disabilities can be, and some are, paid just pennies an hour. The 14(c) subminimum wage is a relic of those times that assumed that people with disabilities could not perform. Yet, thanks to generations of struggle, federal laws like the ADA now guarantee the right to access and participation in our communities.
This year we’ll celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the ADA, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was even signed by a Republican president. Every member of Congress should now agree that it’s long past time for all workers, regardless of zip code, race, gender, or ability status to have the right to earn a fair wage. But it’s been more than two hundred days since the House passed the Raise the Wage Act, so you need to talk to your senators to tell them to take up this bill. We have to keep up the pressure. Senators blocking this bill must explain to voters why they do not believe that workers deserve a decent wage, especially when studies have shown that if you are working full time at the minimum wage of $7.25, you cannot afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in any county in this country. I didn’t say can’t afford it in San Francisco or Manhattan; in no county in America can a full-time minimum wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.
So, while the Raise the Wage Act awaits action in the Senate, the committee is also working on ways to ensure that workers with disabilities can successfully transition out of the 14(c) subminimum wage. Earlier this year I introduced H.R. 873, the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act, which is a bipartisan proposal to accompany the Raise the Wage Act. While the minimum wage bill phases out the 14(c) subminimum wage, this bill compels states and employers to work with the disability community toward creating fully integrated and competitive employment opportunities for all workers with disabilities. The bill establishes a competitive grant program to push states to transition workers with disabilities being paid a subminimum wage to competitive, integrated employment. Even in states that don’t want to participate, the bill provides resources directly to businesses to independently form partnerships to meet the needs both of employers and workers. Finally, the bill establishes a nationwide technical assistance center to help transition individuals to competitive, integrated employment.
The evidence is clear: individuals with disabilities are more productive and effective when they are integrated into the general workforce and paid a fair wage. Transformation to the Competitive Employment Act protects the civil rights of individuals with disabilities and encourages businesses to tap into this underutilized resource. With your support, we will continue to work on a bipartisan basis with our colleagues to bring the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act to the House floor. Finally, I’m pleased to see that the members of the NFB were able to offer testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights at a hearing on the subminimum wage last November, where I also testified on the need to support workers with disabilities to end the 14(c) subminimum wage and provide resources to transition workers with disabilities into competitive, integrated employment. Ending 14(c) is a critical civil rights issue that deserves our nation’s attention.
Throughout the last eight decades NFB has been a critical advocate for the rights of blind Americans. Please continue to stay engaged, make your voices heard, and do not back down!
In the words of NFB’s founder, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, “If we work together, we can do more than just guarantee the right to live in this world. We can empower people with disabilities to thrive in this world.” Thank you very much for all that you do.
by Mark Riccobono
My name is Mark Riccobono, and I serve as President of the National Federation of the Blind, America’s civil rights organization of the blind. Thank you for allowing me to share our thoughts with you about the potential of autonomous vehicle technology to enhance the independence of blind Americans.
The promised benefits of autonomous vehicles are well known, ranging from fewer road fatalities to greater independence to better fuel economy. Autonomous vehicles are poised to be the next great American innovation. In order to unleash the myriad benefits that autonomous vehicles and their associated technologies represent, it is imperative that Congress be proactive and expeditious in paving the way for the development, deployment, and full and equal enjoyment of autonomous vehicles for all Americans.
Blind Americans are enthusiastic about the prospect of autonomous vehicles. By potentially enhancing our independence by providing reliable transportation that we can access whenever we need it, just as other Americans are currently able to do, autonomous vehicles would also improve our productivity, economic outcomes, and community engagement. It is important to recognize, however, that none of these benefits will be actualized without a clear and forward-thinking approach to the autonomous vehicle issue at the federal level, which includes ensuring full and equal access for everyone.
To ensure equal access, two items must be a part of any final legislation promoting autonomous vehicles, and only one of which has to do with the design of autonomous vehicle technology. The first item is protecting the blind and other people with disabilities from discrimination in the licensure process; in other words, eyesight must not be a requirement for a license to operate an autonomous vehicle. The second item is requirements related to nonvisual accessibility of user interfaces and vehicle design. Without these two requirements working in tandem, we could find ourselves in one of two ironic yet equally untenable scenarios. In the first, the blind could have unfettered access to autonomous vehicles via nondiscriminatory licensing practices, but are then unable to operate the vehicles due to inaccessible user interfaces. In the other scenario, autonomous vehicles could be designed and manufactured ideally in terms of accessibility, yet many blind people are then unable to enjoy the fruits of such innovation due to discriminatory licensing mechanisms.
The National Federation of the Blind supports the responsible production and deployment of autonomous vehicles that are safe, reliable, and fully accessible. We also support nondiscriminatory public policies that make these vehicles equally available to both the blind and others with disabilities or other characteristics that prevent them from operating traditional vehicles. Early and consistent guidance from policymakers as these technologies are developed, tested, and deployed, and as states and territories craft legislation and regulations supporting their operation, is critical to realizing the promise autonomous vehicles hold for all Americans. I therefore ask this committee to take urgent action to ensure that promise comes to fruition. Thank you again for the opportunity to address you today.
by Ryan Strunk
From the Editor: This item is taken from the Minnesota Bulletin, spring edition, published by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. Ryan Strunk is the president of the affiliate, and his perspectives are always worth reading. Here is a good one:
I was not an athlete in high school. (Sadly, I suspect this is true for a lot of blind children.) I did think of myself as an intellectual though, and mom always accused me—rightly—of being argumentative, so when I learned I could combine the two by joining the debate team, I was excited at the prospect. When I read in the informational packet that I could use the powers I would develop to argue for a later curfew, I was hooked.
Within a week of joining the team, however, everything changed. Our first assignment was to debate the pros and cons of capital punishment. Each of us was given a side to discuss, and we were told to research the arguments for that side of the issue. We were encouraged to make use of the library and the internet, and we were given free reign for forty minutes a day during the A lunch period. At the end of the first week, we were told that we would come back and discuss what we had learned in order to formulate arguments for the debate.
This assignment terrified me to the point of freezing. I had never needed to do open research before for a school assignment, and I had no idea how. I knew how to read books, having scanned a few of them for book reports, but I had no idea how to make use of the library as a blind person. I was overwhelmed by the shelves and stacks, the inaccessibility of the racks of old newspapers and sheets of microfiche, and I could not even fathom where to begin. I could read a book if I had it, but I didn’t know how to find a book in the first place. I should have been saved by the internet. After all, everyone was coming online back in the late 90s, and there was no shortage of content online. In those days, however, I only used the internet for chat, email, and gaming. It never occurred to me that newspapers were electronically available, let alone how to find and read them, so that direction was closed to me as well.
I spent my first week on the debate team sitting in the classroom idly starting to write arguments out of my own head and deleting them, picking at my lunches, and filling time with nothing. Instead of asking for help from the teacher, I sank deeper and deeper into hopelessness until I could not find a way out. Before the first assignment was due—before anyone could realize I had no idea what I was doing—I went to the teacher and told him I wanted to drop the class.
I never told him the real reason. The one I gave him was that I was just too closed-minded. I didn’t have the ability, I said, to see things from multiple points of view, especially on that issue. My mind was made up, and it couldn’t be changed. He laughed in a way that sounds, in my memory, like the verbal equivalent of a shrug and signed the drop form.
I liked that version of my story better than the truth. It made me the maverick, the kid who didn’t play by the rules, the guy who already had the answers and didn’t need to find them in books. That was a lot more palatable than the guy who didn’t know how to do research and was too proud to ask for help. I wrapped that version around myself, and I wore it so long that I eventually believed it. When the subject of debate would come up in college and beyond, I told people that “debate just wasn’t for me,” and I believed it.
It wasn’t until just a few months ago that I realized the truth I had been hiding from myself for half my life. The topic of high school debate had come up again in some mundane conversation, and when I reached to pull out that worn old story, I saw what was hiding behind it. I was a kid who didn’t have the skills I needed to be successful, and I was too scared and too proud to ask for help.
To this day, I don’t know what kept me from reaching out. I can guess at reasons, but I’m not sure I’ll ever know exactly why. I spent too long denying reality. What feels more consequential to me now is that all the reasons I can think of today are things that can still hold me back, and I suspect they drag at a lot of people who are blind: admitting I can’t do something makes me less independent, asking for help makes me less independent, and solving the problem is complicated to the point of being impossible.
The paradox of that thinking though, is that not asking for help, not admitting the places where I don’t have the answers, and abandoning a problem rather than solving it actually makes me less independent. I never learned how to debate. I’m marginally competent at doing research. It took me years to develop the ability to see an issue from multiple perspectives. All those deficits narrowed the options available to me and had a huge impact on my life. Had I made that realization in high school, things could have turned out different—not better, but different.
The truth about blindness is that sometimes we do things differently. We use alternative techniques to accomplish ordinary tasks, and we live fulfilling lives as a result. Sometimes we create those techniques ourselves, but often we learn them from blind people who have gone there before us and can teach us what they learned. If we don’t admit what we don’t know, choosing instead to try to figure out our own way in the name of supposed independence, we can miss out on learning the answers someone else has already discovered. Choosing to ask for help doesn’t make us dependent. It means we’re strong enough to admit when we need a hand.
Over the years, I have received a hand from the National Federation of the Blind on numerous occasions. Even now, as I write this, my first successful attempt at polishing shoes are drying on an old grocery bag. I learned that blind people polish shoes from Dr. Maurer’s article "Gray Pancakes and the Gentleman's Hat" [from Kernel Book Gray Pancakes and Gold Horses]. Members have taught me how to barbecue a steak, match suits and ties, find a bus stop in the snow, create a complicated to-do list, host a convention, pass a bill in the legislature, and so much more. If I hadn’t had the help and understanding of the National Federation of the Blind over the years, things would have turned out different—and likely worse.
I’m happy with the life I have now. I like how things have turned out, and I wouldn’t change them. I want to make sure though that other people who don’t have the answers they need know that it’s okay to ask for help and that other blind people are here for them. If they’re struggling with school, work, technology, cooking, or anything else, the members of the National Federation of the Blind will be ready with understanding, encouragement, and advice.
I couldn’t admit in high school that I didn’t know how to do research. I believed it was my responsibility to figure out my problems alone. I know better now. I know that asking for help makes me more independent—not less. I know that I have a whole support system of friends and family who will help me to be successful. If you need help, we’re here for you, too.
by Geerat J. Vermeij
From the Editor: Geerat J. Vermeij is a distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He can be reached at [email protected]. When he writes, I always find what he has to say of interest:
Every day I wake up knowing how fortunate I am. I have a loving and interesting spouse, a deeply fulfilling career, access to excellent food, a house that is fully paid off, a successful daughter and her family, a supportive brother in the Netherlands, and so much more. In short, I am privileged, so much so that the word "privileged" appears in the title of one of my books.
But one way in which I am not privileged in the traditional sense is that I am totally blind. I belong to a small minority that has historically been deemed subnormal, with the result that society has often withheld opportunities that other members of the community have come to expect. How should we respond to the age-old subordinate status of the blind in society? We can't simply ignore it and accept the status quo. Should we instead look in every corner for more evidence of denied privilege?
In his unfortunate essay entitled “Sighted Privilege: Recognition of the Problem is the First Step Toward Resolution,” published in the February 2020 Braille Monitor, Justin Salisbury embraces the latter option. He is engaged in a diligent search for confirmation of pervasive social privilege enjoyed by the sighted majority at the expense of the blind minority. The evidence is not hard to come by; if you look for it, you will find it. But then what? Without proposing a remedy, Salisbury's essay offers only a recipe for stoking resentment, affirming continued victimhood, and sowing mistrust.
To my mind, this approach is ultimately destructive and unproductive. As the National Federation of the Blind has demonstrated for eight decades, the blind have individual and collective agency, the ability and the will to change our circumstances by educating the public, changing laws, and setting good examples. With reasoned confidence in our abilities and with productive engagement in the wider world of the sighted majority, we can shake off the insecurity that feeds resentment and free ourselves of victimhood. We do this not by emphasizing differences from the majority but by cultivating affirmative attitudes toward others. A chip on the shoulder is a heavy burden that does nobody any good. Let's make the most of what we have and seek to improve our collective position by making the fruits of privilege more widely available.
by Norma Crosby
From the Editor: Norma Crosby is on top of things. She and her affiliate are well organized and ready for us to come to Texas. Here is what she says about tours, and more of what is promised for next month:
The 2020 convention of the National Federation of the Blind is almost here, and boy are we getting excited in Texas. We are making plans to host the biggest and best Federation family reunion ever. As I told you in the February issue, Houston has lots to offer, and we are planning to make it possible for you to take advantage of some great opportunities while you are in town. Let me tell you what we have in store for you.
Space Center Houston is a fun and educational place for people of all ages, and we are working with the accessibility team to develop tours while we are in town for the 2020 convention. Tour prices will be all inclusive, except for food and drinks or souvenirs purchased on-site. The tour will include a tactile artifact room, a STEM activity, a touch tour of Starship Gallery, and a tram tour that will include an opportunity to get up close and personal with NASA rockets. Tours will be available on the morning or afternoon of July 15 and on the afternoon of July 16.
Galveston Island is Houston’s playground. In just about an hour, you can leave the city behind and experience a day at the beach. During our convention, we are planning to make it possible for members who want to get away to spend some time visiting the beach, the historic Strand District, Moody Gardens, and the Pleasure Pier. Moody Gardens is a great space for families to visit. Attractions include a ropes course and zip line, amusement rides, and Galveston’s only white sand beach. We’ll provide transportation and a day pass that will entitle visitors to access the beach and the seven major attractions. There will be a separate charge for zip line and ropes course tickets.
The Strand Historic District is primarily a shopping and dining destination, but there is also a railroad museum located within the district as well. The Pleasure Pier is a dining and amusement area on Seawall Boulevard, and our visitors can purchase tickets for the pier as part of the tour package we will offer.
Galveston is not a large island. So if you choose this tour, you will be able to have more than one sightseeing experience simply by taking a short rideshare or taxi trip. Our tour package will include the cost of roundtrip transportation to the island and the cost of tickets to Moody Gardens and/or the Pleasure Pier. A visit to the Strand Historic District is free except for the food, drinks, and merchandise you may elect to purchase.
If you just want to have a day at the beach, we can drop you off at Stewart Beach for a day of family fun. This beach has amenities that include a playground, concessions, chair and umbrella rentals, a pavilion, a beach volleyball court, and more. Alcohol is not allowed at Stewart Beach.
Specific times for the tour have not been set as of this writing, but we plan to offer an opportunity to tour Galveston on July 15 and 16. We will provide information about drop-off and pickup points prior to the convention.
The Kemah Boardwalk is a little closer to town than Galveston. Families may choose to spend a few hours there if they are looking for some fun and food. The boardwalk is on Galveston Bay, approximately twenty miles from downtown Houston. It includes amusement rides, retail shops, and dining. We will offer a tour on the afternoon of July 16. Ticket prices will include roundtrip transportation and admission fees.
Specific information about tours will be posted on our affiliate’s website no later than April 15. Tickets will be sold online and by telephone only. Tickets are first come first served and will be available from April 15 to July 1 or until the tours sell out. To purchase tickets online, go to https://nfbtx.org or give us a call at 281-968-7733. Our office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Tickets will not be sold by telephone outside of regular business hours. Ticket purchases are nonrefundable. See you in Houston!
by Jessica Reed
From the Editor: I think this article is a pearl, and the truth is that I almost lost it. It got stored in a pending folder, and evidently I pended the desire to look at it. It came six months ago, but thank goodness, it is as timely now as it was when submitted.
Jessica Reed is the mother of two children ages five and two. She is the vice president of the Fredericksburg Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia. An active Federationist since 2004, she enjoys reading, physical fitness, the outdoors, and history.
In this article Jessica speaks eloquently to the value of sight, the sadness in losing it, the reluctance to believe other blind people might have answers, and the life-changing realization that those of us in the Federation have some. Here is what she says:
I cry over my blindness, and all too often fall into the trap of "Why me!" I have never felt that my blindness was “just a characteristic.” I would take my vision back in a nanosecond. As a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, I took two weeks to make a lemon meringue pie, dropping more than one egg yolk on my classmate’s foot.
I am many things, but I would never call myself super blind. If we are totally honest, for the first ten years of my blindness I would have flinched and may have smacked anyone who called me blind. All this and I am a Federationist.
I lost my vision at the age of nine as a result of medical malpractice. To say that my family and I were devastated would be an understatement. I was close to needing to repeat the third and fourth grades because, when I did make it to school, I was more often than not missing and later found hysterical in the girl's bathroom.
When it first happened, doctors assured my family that my vision loss was only temporary. I woke every morning expecting to see. Not until years later was I told point-blank by a prominent neurosurgeon, “There isn't a snowball’s chance in hell.” My family was never the same after this doctor visit.
Today I am a stay-at-home mother to two beautiful thriving children. I have a sighted husband and live in the historic town of Fredericksburg, like I always dreamed. I have traveled, jumped out of a plane, ran a marathon, graduated from college, and have worked. I am a Federationist.
When I ventured off to the Louisiana Center for the Blind at the age of eighteen, I went with the conviction that I would try out its training (which I wasn’t convinced I needed), but they could keep their NFB hard-nosed, militant philosophy to themselves. I loved guide dogs and was not the political type. I had many sighted friends so therefore did not need any blindness social club. While in Louisiana, I questioned and argued with almost everything they taught. The word blind was a slap in the face. It was a scarlet letter I had to attempt to hide and mask at every turn, and I was baffled at how the staff and students could have no shame in it. These were educated, well-put-together, attractive people. There were people with children, some with advanced degrees, some who were wealthy, and some who lived paycheck to paycheck. I slowly began to fall off my pedestal. There were also those who struggled immensely with cane travel, cooking, computers, or knew no Braille at all. There were those that knew nothing other than blindness and those like me trying to navigate a jagged road of anger, frustration, and immeasurable grief.
The National Federation of the Blind philosophy is not the delusion I was once convinced it was. Yes, I would love to know exactly what my children look like and see another sunrise, but what stabs through my heart most of the time is not that. It is the frustration of not being able to drive. It is the sadness that I will never be able to teach my son to drive. It is the anger that rears up when I hear of another blind Lyft or Uber customer being stranded by a driver because they have a guide dog. It is the anger that claws up at me when I hear of another blind parent having their child removed by CPS [Children’s Protective Services] solely due to their blindness. It is the sadness I feel when I meet a highly educated blind person who cannot find even a minimum-wage job. These people are all me, so I am a Federationist.
As a little girl, I had a little wooden cross I would hold nightly during prayers. I would trace the metal figure of Jesus nailed to that cross. The number of tears I cried while clutching that cross and wondering what I did wrong and the number of times I kissed his little feet cannot be counted. The word “inconvenience" was jarring even when put into context with “the proper training and opportunity.” The phrase was jarring because I didn’t fully understand its meaning ...until now. I could not see that the NFB was simply saying that it did not have to be the debilitating death of my hopes and dreams that much of society tries to impose. The NFB philosophy that I can live the life I want is not incongruous with the grief at suddenly and unexpectedly going blind; instead it compliments it. I know what it is to beg, bargain, and plead for a so-called cure. I woke up every day for years expecting to see. I had no blind role models who successfully lived the lives they wanted. I could not picture being a blind high schooler, then a blind college student, and finally a blind adult. I felt like I was waiting for my real life to begin—and let me tell you that is agonizing and exhausting!
Today the NFB is the beacon of hope that I craved. The NFB fights to protect the interest of blind parents so that their children are not needlessly removed from loving homes just because a well-meaning social worker cannot understand how we safely provide for our children. The NFB fights for the equal opportunity of guide dog users to use ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft without fear of being stranded. The NFB legislates for continued accessibility on the internet and everyday home appliances. The NFB has been fighting for my dreams long before I knew there would be a fight.
Would I like to have my vision back? Yes! Though he was so cruel in his delivery all those years ago, the prominent neurosurgeon was correct. There is little in optic nerve research, so the potential for any vision restoration is nil. My love and contributions to this world are not. The National Federation of the Blind is the vehicle to my contributions, hopes, and dreams. I have learned that what cripples me most is not always my blindness but an inaccessible world that does not always understand me. This is a measurable variable that can be improved, and that is what the NFB strives to do. I am a Federationist.
Today, I am a Federationist because my Federation family understands my sadness, anger, and frustrations of being blind. They listen to and challenge in the way that only they can. I am a Federationist.
Just as no two sighted people are the same, no two blind people are the same. I have learned that there are many who have never viewed blindness as a tragedy. While I do understand where they are coming from, I think we are falling short as a Federation family if we do not acknowledge that there are also those like me who have come from a place of tragedy. The NFB philosophy was never meant to imply that blindness is not traumatizing for some, but, instead, it does not have to be our end. I am a Federationist.
by Marc Maurer
From the Editor: Marc Maurer is a man who needs no introduction, his tenure as the longest-serving President of the National Federation of the Blind and his continuing legal work speak for themselves. What many may not know is the constant wondering, thinking, and imagining that goes on in his head and which his reduced schedule now allows him to write for consideration and discussion.
One question we are constantly asked is what we think about when someone talks about color. If we are totally blind, what color do we see in our heads? I used to think that my answers were shared by all totally blind people, but Dr. Maurer convinces me that this view is wrong. Here is how he did it:
In the National Federation of the Blind we talk about blindness a lot, but the conversations are different from those that occur in other arenas. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness—some would say the major cause of blindness--in the United States. Retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration are also significant causes of blindness. However, we don’t spend a lot of time on these topics because our focus is not on what causes blindness but on what to do as a blind person to lead a joyful life when the time has come that the medical profession has decided that it has no remedies to offer that will restore sight. We take blindness as a given, and we try to decide what can be done to bring productivity and an active life to those who are blind.
Nonetheless, the calls we get at the national headquarters of the Federation are often from people who want to tell us about their vision loss, the causes of their vision loss, the difficulties they encounter because of vision loss, the unusual experiences they have because of vision loss, and their heartfelt longing to have their vision restored. These expressions come both from people who are encountering vision loss for the first time and from people who have encountered vision loss in the past but are experiencing more of it today.
Consider for example a person who has been partially blind but who is now losing the remainder of that person’s vision. Even if that person has been a part of the Federation and has learned thoroughly the philosophy of opportunity that we proclaim in the Federation, that person experiences loss and distress that accompanies loss with the diminution of vision. Ray McGeorge, a leader from Colorado who joined the Federation in the 1950s, sometimes possessed vision and sometimes not. He knew what the Federation believed about blindness, and he knew about the capacity of blind people. He was a machinist, and he was very good at what he did. Sometimes he was able to drive, and sometimes he could not. When in later life he lost his remaining vision, he agonized over the process. He worried not only about his personal loss but also about what people thought about his reaction to it. I learned this only later when I discussed his vision loss with others. I did not know it had been so hard on him, and I was sorry that I hadn’t been aware of his personal struggle.
In the last year, I have had the opportunity to visit with a number of eye doctors. They have a very predictable point of view. They believe that loss of vision is a tragedy, and they believe that anybody who has lost it is in terrible circumstances. They believe that maintaining any amount of vision is the highest priority in their practices, and they will not consider the possibility that any loss of vision may have advantages.
Some of the people who call here to our headquarters tell us that they have a tiny bit of remaining vision but that the eye which has this vision also gives them extraordinary pain. One of the people who called said the eye hurt so much that it ought to be removed, but medical officials refused. The person calling asked us for advice about what to do. Somehow, we are expected to have answers.
In my visits with the eye doctors in the last year, I have asked a number of questions about the prognosis for restoring tiny amounts of vision or about what the doctors expect in the progress of certain eye diseases. The astonishing part for me in the answers these doctors have given is that they don’t really know. When eye diseases have progressed to a certain degree, the doctors don’t know what they can do, and they don’t know what the patient can expect.
None of this would be especially revealing except that discussions among Federation members also demonstrate phenomena that have not previously been brought dramatically to my attention. Blind people (or some of them anyway) “see” things all the time. What is it that they see? What I have heard from my colleagues is that they see white mist, black dots, flashing lights, bands of color, or a kaleidoscope of images. The images are not always static—they change and progress. Sometimes the images are superimposed on visual cues, which can be confusing. Sometimes the images are strong enough that they disturb sleep or interrupt thought.
I want to emphasize that I don’t believe the people from whom I have heard these things are experiencing psychological disorders. I think the phenomena they experience are real. However, I don’t think the doctors know much about it. Furthermore, as far as I can tell, the mystification in the medical profession is sufficiently profound that this type of experience is outside the current realm of study. Are these phenomena caused by specific conditions of the eye created by stimulation to the brain that occurs only in certain eye diseases? I don’t think that there is currently an answer to the question. Consequently, it seems to me that we should share information on the point. Do these thoughts change our point of view in the Federation? I suspect that they do not, but I imagine that a greater knowledge of the experiences that blind people have with the phenomena that comes to us will be beneficial in welcoming people to the ranks of our membership.
Confronting myths about blindness is one of the things we do in the Federation. A number of sighted people have indicated to me (I suspect doctors feel the same) that blind people see black all of the time. I am totally blind, and I do not have this experience. My imagination tells me that I see light and color. I don’t imagine that my imagination of light and color matters very much except to me, but the experience of black which is attributed to the blind also suggests to those who believe in it that the lives of blind people are dark and dreary. My imagination gives color and light to my life even though I don’t see it in a physical sense. However, I have not interviewed other blind people to learn what their experiences tell them about light, color, depth, perspective, and the other attributes of existence associated with vision. It might help us to know what the range of these experiences could tell us, and what better place to discuss this than in our magazine.by Dick Davis, Chairperson, NFB Employment Committee
From the Editor: Dick Davis has a distinguished career helping blind people. He has worked as the assistant director of BLIND Inc., our training center in Minnesota. He also worked for Dr. Jernigan at the Iowa Commission for the Blind. But what really impresses me about Dick is that all of this has been more than a job for him—it has been a crusade to improve the lives of blind people and has been more than a salary. In fact, it has been a life’s goal.
Dick currently serves as the chairperson of the NFB Employment Committee, and he is active in the work he leads. Here is what he has to say about the two career fairs the NFB holds each year:
Frequently, people call me and tell me how much difficulty they’re having finding employment. They apply online or send out cover letters and resumés, sometimes without getting any kind of response. Frustrating! Then I ask them if they are planning to attend one of our upcoming career fairs, either the one at our national convention or the one at our Washington Seminar. Some say, “Great idea; tell me more!” And I give them the information, and they go.
But too many offer some kind of excuse: they weren’t planning to go this year, the convention is too expensive, or they went to the career fair once and didn’t get a job. Sometimes they blame discrimination or the 70 percent unemployment and underemployment rate among blind people, which is just a statistic and has nothing to do with an individual’s likelihood of success. So they just keep spinning their wheels, sending out unanswered resumés.
People, people! There is no easy way to get a job, especially if all you do is send out resumés. If those resumés don’t result in job interviews, you’re using the wrong method. The only way you will ever get a job is if you meet and talk with employers face-to-face. And with increased emphasis on diversity hiring, many employers really do want to meet you.
That is what our NFB career fairs offer you–an opportunity to talk with employers we’ve pre-screened, employers who actually want to hire you. This year in Houston we plan to have more than fifty employers from throughout the nation in attendance. We have expanded the length of the career fair to three hours, and there will be more space too.
The career fair will be Wednesday, July 15 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The Job Seeker Seminar, which will prepare you for the career fair by allowing you to meet many of the employers and give you lots of other useful information, will be Tuesday, July 14 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Its focus this year will be full inclusion.
We will also have an employment committee meeting on Tuesday, July 14 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Dates and times for the Upward Mobility Seminar and Etiquette Dinner are still under discussion. Jobseeker/employer networking sessions may occur over some lunch hours.
To sign up for the career fair and get more information, keep watching this link: https://www.nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention. It also has information on Kenneth Jernigan scholarships for first time convention attendees. Keep in mind that many NFB state affiliates and local chapters can offer some financial assistance to members.
Finally, remember that you’ll be in the presence of over 3,000 other blind people, and since NFB members have a higher employment rate than blind people in general, most of them will have jobs. They may know of jobs where they work and jobs with other places. Our convention has many division meetings that may cover your field of interest too. So what’s keeping you? See you at the 2020 NFB National Convention and career fair!
by Eva-Lis Wuorio
From the Editor: This comes to us courtesy of Mary Ellen Gabias, a former employee of the National Federation of the Blind who now lives in Canada. What a find it is, and how fantastic to find something from seventy years ago that is still so relevant to us today. Here is the article from Maclean’s Archive, April 15, 1949:
Rocanville, Sask [Saskatchewan] is a village of 475 people, thirteen miles from the Manitoba border, on the Bulyea branch line that meanders across the prairie toward the Qu'Appelle Valley. At the station, there are four grain elevators, an oil tank, a water tower, and a memorial for the 1914-18 war dead. The train goes east once a day and west once a day, except on Sundays. Main Street is ninety feet wide—there is land to spare here—and all the shops and offices are on it. Some of the side streets are lined with poplar, birch, and scrub oak; the neat small houses are set back from the wide streets. The prairie licks close to the flat little settlement.
Dr. Roy C. Merifield returned here at forty-five years of age ten years ago on a stormy winter day from the hospital in Moosomin, knowing he was broke and going blind. He had practiced in the village for only eighteen months previously. He had a wife and a young daughter. The future looked as dark as the dimming light of his eyes. Today, totally blind, remembered months of despair behind him, Dr. Merifield has a successful medical practice, lives a useful, busy life, solidly built on a foundation of sheer guts.
It is a life of normal pursuits and normal worries, the later accented, however, by ever-present darkness. There are people on the town and municipal councils who speak against him because he is blind and who would like to get in a doctor who can see. There are grocery bills. There are dreams at night of golden fields swaying to the prairie winds, or of operations when the keenness of eye and hand are of paramount importance. And there are dark awakenings. There are, too, afternoon hours when the feet itch for the open road and the mind turns to escapades of other days, but darkness walls you in. Then there is nothing but the quiet, empty office and ears painfully keen, waiting for a diversion heralded by footsteps or the ring of a telephone. But these are things blind Dr. Merifield would speak about seldom, if at all.
The small old house, modern and pleasant inside, stands on a quiet street beneath evergreens and oaks. You turn in at a well-cleared walk—the doctor shovels the snow daily for exercise—and ring at the side door marked "Dr. R. C. Merifield." The doctor himself comes to let you in. He is a small man, five foot four, 135 pounds, with grey hair waving off a broad forehead, good big nose adding character to his face, blue eyes brooding over your shoulder. If you are an old patient or a friend, he knows you practically before you speak. "I think your other senses quicken when you lose one," he'll explain.
His voice is firm, friendly, and confident. The sort of a voice we've come to expect from a man to whom we go with our fears and troubles. The small sitting room and adjoining office have an immaculate, reassuring look.
One ordinary day, into the office and out, came these following people. A South African War veteran suffering from Buerger's disease. The doctor eased his tight worry by saying mildly that he was in very good company. That was the King's illness too. "Why," the doctor joked, "I was the first one to diagnose the King's trouble. We were sitting in John Anderson's kitchen after dinner. When the news of his illness came over the radio John said, 'What, do you suppose it is, phlebitis?' I said it sounded more like an arterial rather than a venous trouble and was likely Buerger's." The elderly patient relaxed with the story. He reported that the alpha tocopherol (vitamin E) treatment Dr. Merifield had put him on made him feel much better.
Then, in quick succession, two young women for prenatal examination, on routine visits. Up and down the countryside the doctor's reputation in obstetrical cases is sky-high. One woman said, her smile barely disguising the sharp edge of truth, "Perhaps we like him just because he can't see." Merifield says, "Delivery is so much a matter of touch, even in an instrument case, that it's not surprising one can still do it." Later in the afternoon a French-Canadian woman for a check on her anemia and hypertension. "It just makes me feel good to talk with the doctor regularly," she confided.
There has been a peculiar flu prevalent in the district this winter which leaves the patient dizzy for quite some time afterward. Dr. Merifield diagnosed the trouble as due to disturbance of the function of the balancing organ in the inner ear. Fred Davis, principal of Spy Hill School, came twenty miles to consult the doctor about that.
Around 10 p.m., Dalton Strong arrived to ask the doctor to come to visit his 91-year-old mother. The old lady had just got back from a visit to Kingston, Ont., and had been, it seems, suffering most of all from acute homesickness. She wouldn't eat anything and seemed terrified of all strangers. All she wanted was to stay home on the prairies she knew. "If you'll just come and see her," Strong asked the doctor, "she'd take something from you." "All right, I'll come along," the doctor said. Mrs. Merifield, a slight, grey-haired little woman, with bird-quick manner, checked on the doctor's case and got on her overshoes, coat and scarf. The doctor went firmly to the cupboard and got into his coat and checked cap. He followed Mrs. Merifield out of the door and slipped his hand under her elbow. Strong had left the engine of his car running. It was twenty below that night.
The Strongs live in the old school building, partitioned to make rooms for the big family. The doctor, his hand under his wife's arm, came at a crisp, quick walk across the snowy road, up the steps. The sick old woman was moaning in one of the rooms. Dr. and Mrs. Merifield went in to see her. Mrs. Merifield reported on the count when the doctor checked on the blood pressure. He listened to her heart, talked to her soothingly, finally gave her a sedative hypodermically. She was much quieter when he left.
There are other cases Dr. Merifield handles as a matter of course: they include anemias, hypertensions, digestive disturbances, appendicitis, gall bladder, gallstones, ulcers of stomach or duodenum, and cancer. "After all," the doctor says, "it is not very different diagnosing without eyes. Dr. William Goldie, associate professor of medicine at Toronto, used to tell us thirty years ago that 70 percent of the points of evidence upon which a diagnosis is based comes from the patient's history. About 20 percent from a physical examination in which most information comes from auscultation (listening with stethoscope), palpitation (sense of touch), and even from olfactory (sense of smell). Why, on occasions I've diagnosed diphtheria and some other things from my attention being attracted by the characteristic smell. "The final 10 percent comes from X-ray and laboratory reports. Of course, even sighted doctors obtain these from technicians usually.
"The only part in all the foregoing where I am handicapped is the part of the physical examination which depends upon sight. I get this information from my nurse. "In maternity cases one's difficulties are greatest before the baby arrives. Here again it is examination and manipulation with the gloved hand, where touch is the only sense one can bring into play at this stage. The secret of any success I may have had is in the fact that I never leave a maternity case once labor has started. And, in other cases, I try to do every bit of work just as carefully as possible. I have to check and recheck. I cannot take as great a chance as the sighted doctor, for the public is naturally afraid that the blind person may make a mistake."
I met Mr. Gordon Hodgins the next day. Gordon edits the Rocanville Record (circulation 580) and runs a print shop as his father did before him on Main Street. He's a young, blunt guy. "Sure," he said, "the wife's a patient of the little doc's. She went down to the Grey Nuns' Hospital in Regina at the doc's suggestion. At the Medical Arts Clinic a Dr. Smith examined her. Gallstones, he reported just like the little doc said. 'Not bad for a blind man,' the wife commented. That threw them. 'You don't mean to say you were diagnosed by a blind doctor,' they all said, down there in the city." "That's the way it was," Mrs. Hodgins said. "The doc's a wonder on diagnosing. Doesn't often happen he's wrong." Gordon spoke sharply. "There are some of the people in this town who have it in for him because he's blind, see. But let them have a twinge of pain and they are right there screaming for him. And he's right there to help them. "I've had him for both of my children," Mrs. Hodgins said. "And Palsy was an instrument case, too. I'd have him again." "Hold on there," Gordon said, grinning at her.
"The thing I like, too," Mrs. Hodgins added, "is that he tells you to go to other doctors. He hasn't a bad word for anybody." Gordon came in again. "He gets his own mail. You ought to see him, feeling his way by the wicket to his box, working the combination. Sometimes be stops to talk to you on Main Street (in the summer he gets around more, with his cane, see, winters are more difficult), and he'll take out his watch. Not a Braille watch, just ordinary, with the glass taken off so he can feel the numbers. And he'll say, 'Time for me to be going now.'
"His worst difficulty is crossing the street. Someone will shout 'Hi, Doc,' and he'll turn to greet them, and lose his direction. 'There are some in this town that'll just stand and watch him then. And some that'll call out, 'Just a little left, Doc,' or, 'Just a little to the right.'"
"Mrs. Merifield, now," Mrs. Hodgins said, "she's fine. She'll try to make him help himself instead of doing everything for him, and her heart in her eyes, so you can see it plain. No fuss at all from her."
"We're lucky to have him," Gordon ended definitely, "and no mistake. This district is too small for a young man, and no hospital. They like to have hospitals. There are people who've tried to get him out, and perhaps one of these days they'll succeed, but then they'll find themselves with no doctor at all." "I'll have him anytime," Mrs. Hodgins repeated, and looked with a smile at Gordon.
Though Mrs. Merifield has had no training as a nurse she always wanted to train for it. Her two sisters were nurses. To help Roy Merifield get through his medical schooling after the 1914-18 war she worked in a nurse's office. It came as good experience later. Besides always going on cases, Mrs. Merifield (who is a little deaf, so that where she serves as her husband's eyes he lends his ears to her) also helps in public health work, such as immunization. She accompanies the doctor to schools and loads hypos for the shots. Babies and children under school age get their inoculations during summer months; the district is immunization-conscious. She does the doctor's blood count examinations, all the dressings, and at times has even sutured wounds.
Roy Merifield was born in Ottawa. Many of his mother's relatives were doctors and he can't remember back to a time when he didn't know he was going to be one, too. He took his B.A. course at Victoria College in Toronto, one year behind Sir Frederick Banting with whom he belonged to a students' dinner club. During World War I he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps but didn't get overseas. He got married during that period. When he resumed his medical course, Mrs. Merifield helped him get through by working in the winters, while he went on construction jobs in the summers. He graduated in 1922. By this time his family and his wife's family were living at Prince Albert, Sask., and he took a practice in the village of Kinistino, forty-five miles east from Prince Albert. "Those were the days when I worked hard, walked fast, drove fast, lived hard. It seemed to me I had boundless, endless energy," he recalls.
They were still the rousting, rocking years of the young West and Roy Merifield found them to his liking. He turned down an offer from a California hospital in the 20s, for he was doing well and loving the wild, free life. So, with heavy drinking, long hours, northland journeys, and much work, the Roaring Twenties changed to the Hungry Thirties. Finally in 1936 the Merifields moved to Rocanville.
In 1939, when he was forty-five, Dr. Merifield found he was losing his vision. For about eight years more he could see faint shapes, light, and darkness. Two years ago he went completely blind. He speaks of those years now calmly, though in strong words. "It was still depression when I lost my sight. Like most country doctors, I had no ready cash. Those were the years your accounts only figured in your books.”
"I think that sometimes, then, as I sit in my office day after day with not a patient coming in and misty shapes wavering before my eyes, I could easily have killed myself. But there were my wife and my daughter. I would go home after an empty day, wondering how long my wife could carry on with no money coming in. There were nightmares at night and worrying by day.”
"And then, so gradually you couldn't put your finger on it, but it must have been after two years of great anguish, my practice began to improve. I brought my office home. My wife was there to help me. She was present on every call. She drove me night and day, winter and summer, whenever I had to go to see a patient. She even came on cutter trips over roads that were impassable by car."
First hope, after the two dreadful years, was fostered by the fact that Merifield learned to type. It was a new skill, learned on a borrowed machine from a book of instruction, but it gave him confidence. Winter evenings passed more quickly now, his fingers grew firm and sure. Then, too, R. W. Beath of the Institute for the Blind in Regina hearing of Dr. Merifield, put the services of the Institute at his disposal. Now again there were new opportunities.
Geraldine McEwen, blind music-teacher in Winnipeg, lent the doctor a book of instruction in Braille. The doctor learned it alone, now spends time each evening reading. There is medical news as well as entertainment in Braille—a constant joy to him. His wife reads for him the additional information on new finds in medicine that would help and interest him.
That turning point, year of 1941, when Dr. Merifield moved his office from the town building to his home, learned to type and read Braille, heralded brighter times. Patients came back. Young daughter Betty was able to go to the University of Manitoba and later to take an additional course in social science. (She's now a social service worker in Winnipeg.) Forced to move from a rented house, the doctor bought a lovely, little old one and renovated it into a comfortable pleasant home. He bought a car. He keeps the drive shoveled, and old Archie Black keeps the garden in flowers throughout the summer months. The doorbell rings constantly now.
It's a success story all right. It's the story of a man who did not want charity. "You must carry on," Dr. Merifield would say conversationally, and there's the bugle call of a motto that should be embossed on the Merifield family crest. "I'd like others to know it's possible to carry on," he says, "under any circumstances."
Within their rights, some villagers—a few members of the town council, the village manufacturer of oil cans—speak against him and advertise for a young, seeing doctor. Merifield says, "I'll leave, of course, and let him take over when he comes. But I'll stick here until they get one." Meanwhile, Billy Conner comes for his cough, a mother from Manitoba across the provincial border brings in a seven-year-old son who won't talk, a farmer's wife comes in with a tumor, and the doctor sends an appendicitis case to a hospital in Moosomin or Regina.
"I won't worry about it," the doctor says, "but I won't be stepped on either. I'm too stubborn to walk out while there are loyal patients. Also, you see, I must—and am—earning my living. Regardless of who is right, the main thing which I'd like to say to all blind folks is that even a blind person need never be pushed around if he decides to be like other human beings."
For more than seventy-five years the National Federation of the Blind has worked to transform the dreams of hundreds of thousands of blind people into reality, and with your support we will continue to do so for decades to come. We sincerely hope you will plan to be a part of our enduring movement by adding the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary in your will. A gift to the National Federation of the Blind in your will is more than just a charitable, tax-deductible donation. It is a way to join in the work to help blind people live the lives they want that leaves a lasting imprint on the lives of thousands of blind children and adults.
With your help, the NFB will continue to:
Plan to Leave a Legacy
Creating a will gives you the final say in what happens to your possessions and is the only way to be sure that your remaining assets are distributed according to your passions and beliefs. Many people fear creating a will or believe it’s not necessary until they are much older. Others think that it’s expensive and confusing. However, it is one of the most important things you will do, and with new online legal programs it is easier and cheaper than ever before. If you do decide to create or revise your will, consider the National Federation of the Blind as a partial beneficiary. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call 410-659-9314, extension 2422, for more information. Together with love, hope, determination, and your support, we will continue to transform dreams into reality.
Invest in Opportunity
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back. A donation to the National Federation of the Blind allows you to invest in a movement that removes the fear from blindness. Your investment is your vote of confidence in the value and capacity of blind people and reflects the high expectations we have for all blind Americans, combating the low expectations that create obstacles between blind people and our dreams.
In 2019 the NFB:
Just imagine what we’ll do next year, and, with your help, what can be accomplished for years to come. Below are just a few of the many diverse, tax-deductible ways you can lend your support to the National Federation of the Blind.
Vehicle Donation Program
The NFB now accepts donated vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles. Just call 855-659-9314 toll-free, and a representative can make arrangements to pick up your donation—it doesn’t have to be working. We can also answer any questions you have.
General Donation
General donations help support the ongoing programs of the NFB and the work to help blind people live the lives they want. Donate online with a credit card or through the mail with check or money order. Visit www.nfb.org/make-gift for more information.
Bequests
Even if you can’t afford a gift right now, including the National Federation of the Blind in your will enables you to contribute by expressing your commitment to the organization and promises support for future generations of blind people across the country. Visit www.nfb.org/planned-giving or call 410-659-9314, extension 2422, for more information.
Pre-Authorized Contribution
Through the Pre-Authorized Contribution (PAC) program, supporters sustain the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind by making recurring monthly donations by direct withdraw of funds from a checking account or a charge to a credit card. To enroll, visit www.nfb.org/make-gift, and complete the Pre-Authorized Contribution form, and return it to the address listed on the form.
by Kenneth Jernigan
From the Editor: In our discussions about sighted privilege, one of the concerns that has been raised is that the concept is very different from what we have previously thought about the role of blind people and sighted people in society. There have also been concerns that by even venturing to use the term privilege we are allying ourselves with what some call a leftist victim mentality. As you read this speech that was delivered almost forty-six years ago, I urge you to think about whether some in the audience felt the same discomfort in being associated with civil rights and the cause of black people that we feel today as a new generation seeks to understand those things that retard their progress and ways of explaining and redressing them. Here is what Dr. Jernigan said in 1975:
When the orange-billed seagull scares from my shadow and flees from my pass, I look up and see the sun laughing a smile on the water.
When mothers and fathers shout and hit their children for discipline, I look up and see the sun lure transient clouds to cover her face.
And when the blind man, dogless, loses his homeward path, I have seen the stranger straighten his solo way while the sun sets.
I have wondered: Is there a land where the birds are unafraid, where the little children are uncried, and the blind people see
Where the sun won't laugh at the seagulls and hide from the children and leave when the blind man is lonely.
That poem—which appears on the wall of a California coffee house—portrays to a remarkable degree (even if only in microcosm) both the best and the worst traits of humanity: compassion, bigotry, sensitivity, obtuseness, concern, arrogance, perceptive awareness, and a total lack of understanding. Certainly with respect to blindness it exemplifies every misconception of the darkest middle ages. When the blind man (dogless or otherwise) is lonelier than others—when he has it so bad that the sun itself must flee from his plight, it is not the blindness which should be mourned but the social attitudes and the cultural heritage—the root causes of the broken spirit and the blighted soul. Second-class status and deep despair come not from lack of sight but from lack of opportunity, lack of acceptance, lack of equal treatment under the law, and (above all) lack of understanding.
Not only does the coffee house poet speak about blindness but also (doubtless without knowing it) he speaks about our reason for organizing; for if the principal problem we face is the blindness itself (the physical loss of sight and its alleged inherent limitations) there is little purpose in collective action. If, as the poem puts it, the only solution is, "a land where the birds are unafraid, where the little children are uncried, and the blind people see," we had better pack it in and leave it to the experts. And even then, there will be no real solution; for (with present knowledge and foreseeable technology) most of us who are blind today are going to stay that way, and that is that. If this is truly the way of it, let us take such comfort as we can from the doctor, the preacher, and the psychiatrist—and let us square our shoulders and take it alone, not seeking the company of others with similar affliction, who (at the very best) can only remind us of what we are not, and what we can never become.
But, of course, this is not the way of it—not at all. Everything in us rejects it. All of our experience denies it. We know that with training and opportunity we can compete on terms of absolute equality with the sighted, and we also know that the sighted (with education and correct information) can come to accept us for what we are—ordinary human beings, neither especially blessed nor especially cursed—able to make our own way and pay our own tab.
This is why the National Federation of the Blind came into being. In 1940 a small band of blind people from seven states met at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to begin the movement. At first it was mostly faith and dreams, but that was over a generation ago. Today (with more than 50,000 members) we are a nationwide crusade with local chapters in every state and the District of Columbia. At an accelerating pace we have become aware of our needs, our potential, and our identity. An increasing number of the sighted have also become aware and now march with us, but the mass of the public, a majority of the media, and most of the social service agencies still think in pre-Federation terms.
Deep down (at the gut level) they regard us as inferior, incompetent, unable to lead an everyday life of joy and sorrow, and necessarily less fortunate than they. In the past we have tended to see ourselves as others have seen us. We have accepted the public view of our limitations and, thus, have done much to make those limitations a reality. But no more! That day is at an end.
Our problem is so different from what most people imagine, that it is hard for them even to comprehend its existence. It is not the blindness, nor is it that we have lacked sympathy or goodwill or widespread charity and kindness. We have had plenty of that—too much, in fact. Rather, it is that we have not (in present day parlance) been perceived as a minority. Yet, that is exactly what we are—a minority, with all that the term implies.
Do I exaggerate? In the summer of 1972 the National Federation of the Blind held its convention in Chicago. A local television station sent a black reporter to do coverage. She went directly to the exhibit room and used most of her film on various mechanical aids and gadgets. To round out her story, she came to me and asked that I comment on the value and benefit of it all.
I responded obliquely, asking her how she would feel if she were at a national meeting of the NAACP or the Urban League and a reporter came and said he was there to film the shoe shining and the watermelon eating contest. She said she wouldn't like it. "Well," I said, "suppose the reporter took another tack. Suppose he wanted to spend all of his time and film on an exhibit of gadgets and devices incidentally on display as a sidelight of the meeting, ignoring the real problems which brought the group together in the first place." She said she wouldn't like that either. In fact, she said, it would be worse since the question about the shoe shining and the watermelons could be easily discredited, while the other approach was just as bad but far less apparent and, therefore, probably more destructive.
I then told her about a reporter who came to one of our meetings and said, "I'd like to get pictures of blind persons bowling and of some of the members with their dogs." I tried to explain to him that such a story would be a distortion—that we were there to discuss refusal by employers to let us work, refusal by airlines to let us ride, refusal by hotels to let us stay, refusal by society to let us in, and refusal by social service agencies to let us out. He said he was glad I had told him and that it had been very helpful and enlightening. Then he added, "Now, could I see the dogs and the bowlers? I am in quite a rush."
As I told this story, the black reporter was obviously uncomfortable. She seemed truly to understand, but when I asked her if she still intended to feature the exhibits and the gadgets, she stuck to her guns. "In the first place," she said, "I've already used all of my film. In the second place my editor told me to do it, so that's the way it has to be." The television coverage appeared on schedule—usual image, usual distortion. There is nothing wrong with bowling or dogs or canes or exhibits, but it was a bad scene.
A year later (in June of 1973) the blind were again in Chicago—this time for a different reason. The National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) was meeting, and the blind were demonstrating and picketing. Formed in the mid-1960's by the American Foundation for the Blind, NAC symbolized (as it still does) everything odious and repulsive in our long and painful tradition—custodialism by governmental and private social service agencies, ward status, vested interest, intimidation, exclusion, and second-class citizenship. Our attempts to gain representation on NAC's Board were answered by double-talk and tokenism, by Uncle Toms representing nobody but themselves and their masters, and by threats and reprisals. Finally, we had had enough.
So when (without warning and in violation of its own bylaws and policies) NAC tried to hide from us by changing its meeting from Cleveland, Ohio, to an out-of-the-way motel in Chicago (a motel in the midst of construction and remodeling), we came to confront them. And not just a few of us, but the blind of the Nation. It was short notice and difficult doing, but we came—hundreds of us, from all over the country: California, New England, the deep South, and the Midwest.
It was a day of dramatic importance. It was the first time in history that the blind as a people (not just a local group or a given segment but the blind as a people) had mobilized to take to the streets for collective action. There were state delegations, placards and signs, marches in downtown Chicago, and a rally at Civic Center Plaza. Was it newsworthy? By every test known to journalism, the answer would have to be yes.
Yet, the Chicago Tribune for Thursday, June 21, 1973, carried not a single line about the demonstrations. It was not that the Tribune forgot us. Far from it. There was not just one, but two stories about the blind. And what were these stories that were of such importance as to be more newsworthy than the first national demonstration by the blind in history? One was headlined "Busy blind man finds time to help children." The other was captioned "Blind, he directs music in city school."
What a commentary! It was all there. The blind are especially talented in music. They are also burdened and deprived. Therefore, when one of them (instead of just doing the normal thing and receiving) turns it around and gives to others (particularly, children), it has human interest and news value. What would have happened if Martin Luther King had been leading the first black demonstrations in Chicago and the papers had ignored it—printing, instead, "Busy black man finds time to help children" and "Black, he directs music in city school"? I think you know what would have happened, and so do I. There would have been a furor of massive proportions. Yet, the incidents I have related passed without notice or ripple, almost as a matter of routine.
What I have said must be seen in perspective. The Tribune writers and the other members of the Chicago press were not trying to put us down or conspire against us. They were calling it as they saw it, writing what tradition had taught them to write. Like any other cross-section of society, they doubtless were (and are) people of integrity and goodwill. It was not a matter of morals or motives, but of comprehension. It was all tied up with their notions about blindness. Pathos, compensatory talents, musical ability, inspiration, bravery against odds, world of darkness, heart-rending tragedy—these they (and even their editors) could understand: run-of-the-mill, good human interest, no sweat. But the blind as a minority? Discrimination? Marches? Confrontation with the social service agencies, the very people who were trying to help the blind? Ridiculous! The reporters couldn't understand it, and (at least, at the emotional level) they didn't believe it. So how could they write it? And even if they did, how could their editors approve it, or the public buy it? Forget it. Don't think about it. Let it alone.
Of course, the attitudes of the press are representative of the broader society, and the situation is certainly not unique. It is exactly the way the blacks were treated 50 years ago. They were lumped together and seen as a single caricature—good-natured, irresponsible, rhythmic, shiftless, and a mite dishonest—second-class all the way. A black person was never shown in a straight role on the stage or in the movies but only as a foot-shuffling, jolly simpleton. It was Amos and Andy and Uncle Remus and Aunt Jemima; and not only the blacks but all of us will bear the scars for generations to come because of the failure to understand, the lack of concern to care, and the absence of the courage to act. Fifty years ago it was the blacks. Today it is the blind. But we are organized, and we are on the move. We want no strife or confrontation, but we will do what we have to do. We are simply no longer willing to be second-class citizens. They tell us that there is no discrimination—that the blind are not a minority. But we know who we are, and we will never go back.
Lest you think I am picking on Chicago, let me say that New York was about the same. In July of 1973 (only a month after the NAC demonstration in Chicago) the largest group of blind people ever to assemble anywhere in the world up to that time met in New York. For almost a week we discussed our hopes and our problems—planned and dreamed. Some 2,000 of us marched on NAC headquarters. There was a considerable amount of local radio and television coverage, and a little in the papers. Nationally there was hardly a ripple. I can only explain it as before.
It was not conspiracy or deliberate put-down. In some ways it was worse, for an individual can be made ashamed of prejudice and repression but rarely of charity and kindness. They didn't understand it; they didn't believe it; and (above all) they didn't know how to write it. It didn't fit the image and the preconception.
Sometime back a local student chapter of the National Federation of the Blind undertook to analyze advertisements mentioning blindness. An ad to help people stop smoking came to their attention and resulted in the following correspondence:
CAMPANA CORPORATION
Division of Purex Corporation Limited Batavia, IllinoisDEAR SIR: At our April meeting, we read part of an advertisement from your University Plan to Help People Stop Smoking. The reading states in part: "Try smoking with your eyes closed and see how much of smoking is visual. Blind people rarely smoke, not only because of fire danger, but because they are not influenced by these visual aspects of smoking." Since blind people do smoke as much and as often as their sighted friends, and since blind and sighted alike have little conscious concern for the fire hazard involved, we found your advertisement of BANTRON both inaccurate and annoying.
We hope that you will reread your information concerning BANTRON, and see the misconceptions about blindness in it so they may be corrected.
Thank you very much.
A courteous letter—not unreasonable, belligerent, or full of recrimination. Back came the reply, loud and clear—saying, perhaps, more than its author intended or realized:
Thank you for your letter of April 29. Your comments about the sweeping generalizations of blind people not smoking are well taken, and did indeed cause me to study the package directions for Bantron. Although I have yet to know a blind person who did smoke, I will concede the point on the basis that (a) you are more expert on the subject than anyone here, and (b) any such generalization such as blind people fearing fire, left-handed people being awkward, black people being shiftless, Italians gangsters, Jews cunning, Germans warlike, or Iowans as corn growers is by nature indefensible and inaccurate.
Unfortunately, Bantron is not a high volume product, and it may be some time before package directions are next redesigned, and some time after that before the new directions achieve distribution. In fact, it may be years before your suggestions bear tangible fruit. But they have been considered and will be acted upon when the time finally arrives.
A casual (one might almost say a cavalier) response. A rather glib admission that the statements about blindness in the ad were probably false and that nobody around the office had any real information on the subject—or, for that matter, cared to have any, one way or another. No recognition that lives might have been damaged or opportunities lost. Only the godlike statement that, "...it may be years before your suggestions bear tangible fruit. But they have been considered and will be acted upon when the time finally arrives." What insensitivity! What contempt! What arrogance!
What irrefutable proof of the absolute necessity for the National Federation of the Blind! Yet, they tell us that there is no discrimination—that we are not a minority. But we know who we are, and we will never go back.
Not only must we deal with the ad writers and the working press but also with Mr. Magoo—lovable Mr. Magoo. Because he is almost blind he bumbles and blunders through a series of bloopers—walking into telephone poles and apologizing to them because he thinks they are people, patting the tops of fireplugs and speaking to them as children, and walking up half-finished skyscrapers to the brink of disaster and ruin. It's funny because he can't see and makes such stupid goof-ups. Never mind that blindness isn't like that and that no blind person in the world is so incompetent or stupid as to hit a telephone pole and believe it's a human or think the top of a fire plug feels like the head of a child or wander up the girders of an open building. It fits the stereotype, so it's hilariously comical.
But what does it do to blind people—to our public image and our private lives? A few weeks back I received a call from a blind woman in Indianapolis. She said, "The other day I was at the home of a friend, who is also blind, and her four-year-old son was watching Mr. Magoo on television. He turned to his mother in hurt and bewilderment and said, 'Mother, why are they making fun of you?'" My caller went on to tell me that later that same week she was walking down the street when a small child spit on her and said, "You're old Mr. Magoo." She was so shaken by the two incidents coming together that she called to ask what the Federation could do about it.
Of course, this negative behavior is not surprising from small children or even from the public at large; but surely we have the right to expect better from the social service agencies, the very people who are supposedly knowledgeable and established to help us. Yet, an outfit in Seattle calling itself Community Services for the Blind (ultra-respectable and approved by the United Way) decided this spring to make Mr. Magoo the principal focus of its public relations and funding. The leaders of our Washington affiliate protested, but to no avail. A blind man on the Community Services board (Uncle Toms are, indeed, pathetic; and we have our full quota) thought it was funny, and even constructive. But the board's sighted president put it all in perspective:
The advertising message [he said in a letter to one of our members] is especially directed at people who are responsible for the blind—not the blind themselves. We don't feel the blind person will tend to identify himself with Mr. Magoo, necessarily; in fact, many may not even know who he is.... If there is any kind of a negative aspect in the fact that Mr. Magoo has poor eyesight, it is all the more effective, just as a crippled child on a muscular dystrophy poster is more effective than a normal child. [Emphasis added.]
What a damning self-indictment! What an ironic commentary on the end of an era and the death of a system. Yet, they tell us that there is no discrimination—that the blind are not a minority. But we know who we are, and we will never go back.
To round out the picture of the public mind, consider the following recent examples: A man wrote to me a few months ago saying that he would like to buy a cat or dog for every blind person in Colorado Springs. "I saw a young blind boy," he said "with a white cane and a puppy dog. He seemed so happy. If you think it would help I would be glad to see every blind person in Colorado Springs has a pet. Cat or dog."
A dental hygiene student wrote to me from Fresno, California: "I am working on a research paper," she said, "concerning the special needs of visually handicapped or blind people with regard to dental care. I hope to determine: (1) how the dental procedure needs to be altered to accommodate them, and (2) special dental problems of these patients."
Recently a blind woman was in the hospital for gall bladder surgery. A tape on the foot of her bed was inscribed in large letters: "Patient is blind but self-sufficient." It's all tied up in the word "but." Am I quibbling? Not really. Is it subtle? Not very.
An expert on penology and social reform wrote to me to say that, in his opinion, the blind (regardless of their misdeeds) should not be put in the penitentiary. "If the seriousness of their offense merits incarceration," he said, "they should be dealt with in a special manner." In other words, even in the "big house" we should be second-class and segregated.
The author of a book on the teaching of medical transcribing wanted her work put into Braille. "I wrote you," she said, "because I have watched the teaching of this subject to the blind over a period of years and it is unnecessarily painful and lengthy. They do make first-rate transcribers and always seem so pathetically grateful for a chance to learn."
A religious organization circulates a card called "Courtesies of Gentleness for the Sighted in Contacts with the Blind." It says:
A handshake to a blind person is like a smile to a sighted person. So shake hands on greeting and on leaving your blind acquaintance.... Never fill to the brim a cup given to a blind person; it is too hard to keep on an even keel. Give him a refill instead.... Don't express sympathy for a blind person in front of him. In motoring, guard against slamming the car door on the blind person's hands. Also see that he doesn't extend his arm or hand outside the car.... Never force an approaching blind person to give you the right-of-way, for every time he has to deviate from his course, he loses his bearings; In other words the blind can't plan or do for themselves. Do it for them, and think for them, too. And don't express pity for them—at least, not to their faces. Gentle and courteous all of the way.
Incidentally, the Federationist who sent me this card said: "I find it demeaning and offensive."
A doctor at the Mayo Clinic wrote: "I am sorry to say she is blind and cannot be helped. Anything you can do to make her life easier would be greatly appreciated." From Pennsylvania comes this:
Today I was advised by the Department of Labor Inspections Division that under the new life safety measures, which will emanate from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, it will not be possible to allow a blind person to live on the second floor of a boarding house having more than three guests unless the building totally conforms with the federal specifications and standards.
Southern College, located in Orlando, Florida, announces: "Tuition for all students is basically $417 per quarter. There is an additional quarterly fee of $125 for visually-impaired students."
In 1972, James Reston, the well-known syndicated columnist, commented on Senator Eagleton's forced withdrawal from the Democratic vice-presidential nomination: "This is not primarily Eagleton's fault," Reston said, "but the system's. That system is very compassionate to human beings whose age and health interfere with the efficient execution of their work. It tolerates Supreme Court justices who are in serious ill health or who are even almost blind."
The key word (as I am sure I don't have to tell you) is even. That "even" is at the center of our problem as blind people. It takes for granted (as an obvious commonplace, needing no argument) that the blind are unable to perform competently as Supreme Court justices; in fact, that it is ridiculous even to assume that they might; and that any system which tolerates such manifest irrationality can only be explained on the basis of compassion.
Compassion, indeed! The compassion is often misplaced. Recently, for instance, we held a luncheon for employers so that they could get acquainted with blind job applicants, and the East Moline, Illinois, Metal Products Company saw no reason to come.
"Because of the type of business we are in," their letter said, "metal stampings and weldments involving punch presses, shears, brakes, and welders, we feel that we have nothing to offer the blind inasmuch as we have nothing in a counting or packaging type of work."
The irony is that one of the people attending the luncheon (totally blind from childhood) works every day shearing steel and operating presses. He has done it for 15 years and is considered the best in the plant.
In Michigan in 1970 Tom Munn (a blind man) took a State Civil Service examination for the position of mechanic. He passed with a score of 96, and his name was placed on the register. He was not offered employment; others (with lower scores) were hired. In 1972 the Civil Service Commission created a separate list for the handicapped. Munn's name was transferred from the open register to the separate list, and his score was reduced from 96 to 70—which (regardless of performance) was the grade to be given to all so-called "successful" future blind applicants. Munn requested that his performance be evaluated. The request was refused. In 1974 (acting on his own) he secured a work trial evaluation with the Motor Transport Division of the Department of Management and Budget. He did the job without difficulty. The results were ignored. In 1975 (his patience finally exhausted) he contemplated a lawsuit. Officials of the State agency for the blind (the very people charged by law with the duty to help him) allegedly tried to coerce him into silence. Tom Munn and the National Federation of the Blind have now brought action in the federal courts against both the State agency and the Civil Service Commission. Yet, they call it compassion and say we are incompetent. They tell us that there is no discrimination—that the blind are not a minority. But we know who we are, and we will never go back.
Surely all of this is sufficient, but it is only illustrative. Southern Illinois University plans to make a study of the dating and mating selection patterns of the blind; the Minnesota Braille and Sight Saving School plans a course in sex education and wants specialized materials and techniques; and the National Enquirer puts it all together in a November 11, 1973, article entitled "Finds Blindness Upsets Sexual Functioning."
The sex drives of the blind, [the article says] are upset by their inability to see light, states a West German researcher. Dr. H. J. von Schumann, of Dusseldorfs, said he found that irregular menstrual cycles in blind women and loss of sexual ability in blind men seem related to their inability to see light. The hormone-producing system controlled by the pituitary gland appears to need stimulation by light if sex hormones it produces are to be kept at adequate levels.
Hardened as I am to ignorance and superstition, I still find it difficult to know exactly what to do with that one. I confess that I was reluctant even to bring it to you at all for fear some of the sighted (lacking first-hand experience) might be tempted to believe it. The demands of modesty and the wish to be seemly would seem to rule out any attempted refutation by personal laboratory performance, and the customs and laws of the day make it inadvisable to stage mass exhibitions to place the matter in perspective. So I guess the best I can do is this: pick any random hundred of us, and put them alongside any random hundred of them; and I believe we will acquit ourselves with credit and pleasure--probably with volunteers to spare. Ask the sighted with the background to know.
What a dreary picture! We are dogless and lonely; we can't enjoy smoking; we are Mr. Magoo; we need pets to keep us company; we have different dental needs; we must be segregated, even in the penitentiary; we should be pitied, but not to our faces; we cannot live on the second floor of a boarding house; our college tuition is higher; we cannot shear steel or operate presses; we cannot compete in the Civil Service but must be content with a separate list and a score of 70; and, finally, we are even inadequate for the joys of sex. It would seem that all that is left is to pack it in; and even that is taken care of in an article on the right to death by choice appearing in the January 1974, Atlantic: "I do not wish," the author says, "to survive any accident or disease resulting in vision too impaired to see or read. A world without beauty seen is no world for me. A life without freedom and movement is no life for me. If age and illness deny me these, I choose death."
So where does all of this leave us? In the first place it leaves us with the need for perspective; for as the saying goes, we have never had it so good. Despite the exclusions and the denials, we are better off now than we have ever been. It is not that conditions are worse today than they were ten or twenty years ago, but only that we are more aware of them. In the past we wouldn't have known of their existence, and even if we had, we wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.
Today we are organized, and actively in the field. The sound in the land is the march of the blind to freedom. The song is a song of gladness. Yes, there are discriminations and misconceptions; but there are also joy and promise. The old is dying, and the new is at hand.
It is true that not all sighted people have goodwill toward us, but most do. As we begin to move toward first-class citizenship (especially, as we insist upon our rights), we will inevitably provoke hostility; but we will also inspire understanding and respect.
If we simply go forth with chips on our shoulders and bitterness in our hearts, we will lose. We must have greater flexibility and more positive belief in ourselves than that. There is a time to fight and a time to refrain from fighting; a time to persuade; a time to take legal action; a time to make speeches; a time to educate; a time to be humble; a time to examine ourselves to root out arrogance, self-deception, and phony excuses for failure; a time to comfort our fellow blind; and a time to stand unflinchingly and uncompromisingly with the fury of hell against impossible odds. Above all, we must understand ourselves and have compassion in our hearts, for the sighted as well as for our fellow blind—and, yes, even for ourselves. We must have perspective and patience and the long view; and we must have the ability and the willingness to make sacrifice, and the courage to refuse to wait.
We must destroy a system which has kept us in bondage, but we must not have hatred in our souls for that system or that bondage—for the bitterness will destroy, not our enemies but us. We must recognize that the system was an indispensable element in making us what we are, and, therefore, that its chains (properly seen) are part of our emerging freedom—not to be hated or despised but to be put aside as outdated and no longer to be borne.
As we look ahead, the world holds more hope than gloom for us—and, best of all, the future is in our own hands. For the first time in history we can be our own masters and do with our lives what we will; and the sighted (as they learn who we are and what we are) can and will work with us as equals and partners. In other words, we are capable of full membership in society, and the sighted are capable of accepting us as such and, for the most part, they want to.
We want no Uncle Toms—no sellouts, no apologists, no rationalizers; but we also want no militant hell raisers or unbudging radicals. One will hurt our cause as much as the other will. We must win true equality in society, but we must not dehumanize ourselves in the process; and we must not forget the graces and amenities, the compassions and courtesies which comprise civilization itself and distinguish people from animals and life from existence.
Let people call us what they will and say what they please about our motives and our movement. There is only one way for the blind to achieve first-class citizenship and true equality. It must be done through collective action and concerted effort; and that means the National Federation of the Blind. There is no other way, and those who say otherwise are either uninformed or unwilling to face the facts. We are the strongest force in the affairs of the blind today, and we are only at the threshold. We must operate from a base of power—yes; but we must also recognize the responsibilities of power and the fact that we must build a world that is worth living in when the war is over—and, for that matter, while we are fighting it. In short, we must use both love and a club, and we must have sense enough to know when to do which—long on compassion, short on hatred; and, above all, not using our philosophy as a cop-out for cowardice or inaction or rationalization. We know who we are and what we must do and we will never go back. The public is not against us. Our determination proclaims it; our gains confirm it; our humanity demands it. My brothers and my sisters, the future is ours. Come! Join me on the barricades, and we will make it come true.
by Gary Wunder
In a recent issue I asked readers to tell me whether or not you thought the recipe column we have run since 1971 was still of value. The email and telephone calls I have received are overwhelmingly in support of our keeping the column. Whether the Monitor survey echoes this we will see, and please do take the survey. The question I most frequently get is why we would consider doing away with the column.
If readers of the Braille Monitor want the column, we will keep it. The problem is that we continue to have difficulty getting state affiliates to submit. I try to contact each affiliate that will be asked at least six months out to tell them where they are in the flow of states. I then offer a warning about two months out. If I haven’t heard anything by the time we are starting to edit the articles, I used telephone calls. Sometimes I am told that pleas for recipes go unanswered. Sometimes I receive no response at all.
If you want the recipe column to continue, please contribute when asked by your state president. If you don’t see your state represented in the alphabetical list of recipes, one state per month, ask why not, and help your state president assemble them. If this is a tradition worth keeping, let’s do it right and with the pride that is represented in everything we do.
Recipes this month were contributed by members of the National Federation of the Blind of North Carolina.
Ralph Tucker Spaghetti Sauce
by Mary Le O'Daniel
This recipe is a family favorite. Ralph Tucker was a former mayor of Terre Haute, Indiana. I got the recipe from a daily radio program while living there in the early 70s.
Ingredients:
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup butter
2 cups onion, chopped
1 cup green pepper, chopped
2 pounds ground beef
5 cloves garlic crushed
¼ cup parsley
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 or 1 ½ cups red wine
2 cups tomato puree
4 cups tomato paste (six 6-ounce cans)
3 cups canned tomato juice
2 tablespoons oregano
Method: In large skillet, melt butter and heat oil slightly. Sauté onion and green pepper until golden. Add hamburger and cook stirring constantly. Add seasonings and mushrooms and cook ten minutes. Add wine, cover and let sit for five minutes. In three-quart kettle, combine tomato ingredients and oregano and bring to boil. Add skillet mixture and cook over medium heat one hour, stirring occasionally. Enjoy.
Marinade for Roast or Steak
by Mary Le O'Daniel
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons wine
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon catsup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
Salt to taste
Method: Use meat tenderizer on a three-pound roast. Mix above ingredients in a glass bowl. Soak roast in sauce for 24 hours. Broil fifteen minutes on each side, five inches from flame. Slice on diagonal.
Parmesan Chicken Cutlets (Heart Healthy)
by Christy Wheeler
Ingredients:
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
Method: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In re-sealable plastic bag, combine cheese, crumbs and all seasonings; shake well. Transfer mixture to plate; dip each chicken breast in cheese mixture, turning to coat all sides. Arrange on nonstick baking sheet. Bake until chicken is cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Enjoy! (Only 178 Cal/5 G Fat/3.3 G Carbs/28.1 G Protein)
Pasta Corn Casserole
by Christy Wheeler
Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked pasta (small shells, rotini, broken spaghetti or any pasta)
2 cans cream style corn
2 cans whole kernel corn (drained)
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
1 stick melted butter
1 chopped onion
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Cook uncovered for approximately 50 minutes.
English Pea Salad
by Alvin Ricks
Ingredients:
1 can English peas
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sweet pickle cubes or pickle relish
3 boiled eggs, chopped
Mayonnaise
Method: Combine all ingredients in a medium-size bowl using just enough mayonnaise to moisten the mixture. (Adjust to your taste) Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Pickled Peaches
by Alvin Ricks
Ingredients:
Fresh peaches (peeled and halved)
1-1/4 cups rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 - 1/2 inch ginger root
Method: Heat all ingredients (except peaches) in a medium-sized pot, until small bubbles appear. Remove from heat and let cool. Place peaches in a quart jar. Pour cool syrup over peaches. Refrigerate for two weeks before eating. Generally lasts up to one month in the refrigerator.
The National Federation of the Blind DeafBlind Division Mentoring/Mentee Program:
Are you a person who is both blind and has a hearing loss, has attended many national conventions, and would like to mentor other persons who are deafblind? Are you a deafblind person who would like to teach others about hearing loss and how they live their life successfully? Are you a deafblind person who will be attending the convention for the first time but has never experienced such a gathering? Are you a deafblind person who would like to learn from other deafblind persons on how they get food in a large hotel without assistance, find their room, check in to the hotel, browse the tables in the exhibit hall, and/or navigate the hotel lobby?
Well then you have come to the right place. The NFB DeafBlind Division is coordinating a mentoring and mentee program designed for those who are deafblind who will be attending this year’s 2020 National Convention in Houston, Texas. Deafblind individuals who have been to a national convention in the past will be paired up with persons who are first-time convention attendees and who are new to hearing loss. If you are willing or in need of this program, as a mentor or mentee, please email: [email protected].
I pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind; to support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its constitution.
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